


Fix A Heart

by WhatsaBex



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Alex Hastings should exist, But I'm still a MacRiley clown, Eventual jelousy, F/M, Fix the mess 5x03 did, I'm mad at Mac, Riley Davis is my queen, Riley deserves better, Riley gets the perfect man, post 5x03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 62,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28246497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatsaBex/pseuds/WhatsaBex
Summary: Months after Mac and Desi reconciled, Riley feels their family grew apart. She says she's over her "crush", but still she keeps her distance. Bozer has to face a problem without his best friend but a new acquantince comes in to help him out. Riley starts to accept that she deserves the love her friend seems to found already, and she might just be lucky when a new candidate shows up at the Phoenix.But all of them has to face their true feelings eventually and accept that "you can bandage the damage / You never really can fix a heart."
Relationships: Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Riley Davis & Original Male Character(s), Wilt Bozer & Riley Davis (MacGyver TV 2016), Wilt Bozer/Leanna Martin
Comments: 120
Kudos: 149





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And here goes my attempt on processing the mess 5x03 did. I have to tell you, my MacRiley heart was broken by it and I find it very to keep the hope. The only thing that keeps me going is that Riley deserves the world, and a crazy part of my mind still thinks it coul be Mac.  
> Now with that said, this fic is going to serve 2 purposes:  
> 1) creating the perfect man for my Queen so she can be loved an appreciated, plus giving her and Bozer the storyline they deserve  
> 2) taking an itty bitty revenge on Mac, for saying Desi brough him home... the audecity. Here I'm going to make him suffer a bit, watch Riley be happy with another man right in front his nose so he can get a little taste of what Riles has been through.  
> And because I am a clown, I am 60% sure this fic is gonna end with MacRiley, even if I created Alex Hastings to be the man of anyone's dreams! However, if Mac pisses me off again, I might just make Murdoc kill him here... kidding... or not... I don't know anymore.  
> So much for ranting, enjoy and leave me your thoughts here or on Twitter @whatsabex10 xx

Fix A Heart

Chapter 1

They say time fixes everything. But the truth is life goes on and time only makes you forget for most of time. Then suddenly, when you least expect it, the fears, the pain, the scars they reappeare. In my experience, and I had a lot, the best we can do in cases like this is to handle it quietly, on our own. If I could forget about it once then why shouldn’t I be able to do it again. Of course, when it comes to my friends and family, I want to help them get through anything and I do everything not to let them handle it on their own. At least, that’s what I did before Codex and the pandemic. Months have passed with me wallowing in my own thoughts, one minute deciding to move on and later getting stuck with feelings I could barely understand… Yeah, all that time changed something in me, and I had to admit the other people in the Phoenix as well. 

When you constantly face the thing that hurts you, time has no chance of making you forget. The first couple of months of the pandemic were kind of alright, Mac and I developed a working plan for both of us how to not go crazy inside the house and everytime we were crashing on the couch or hang around in the kitchen, I often caught myself wanting to take his hand into mine just to feel that warmth rush through me which I felt in Germany. The one that took me off guard and made my head spin. It changed everything in one second because now my eyes were open to my feelings and I could not close them again. 

But things only changed for me. The reason why I never reached for his hand, never seized the moment was because I knew it would have changed everything for him, too, and maybe it would have lost him as a friend forever. A part of me still tried sometimes, but when things got better with the virus and the others started showing off more and more frequently, including Desi, reality hit again. They were still looking at each other without the other noticing, and from time to time I caught Mac motioning for her but then changing his mind. As soon as I recognized the same longing in his eyes which I felt in me every damn day, I decided it was time to move. If I stayed it would have been like pouring salt on my cuts… So I left. I took the first chance when I found a nice place and left my confusing feelings behind and swore to myself I’ll move on. 

For a while nothing really changed, but I knew it was just a matter of time until one of them blurted out something to start an avalanche. Because that’s what they were like together, an avalanche going down when one of them said or did something too harsh after bottling up their feelings, but after a while they always settled down just like the snow on the side of the mountain... until their next fight. With my heart already being dangerously close to breaking, I decided to step away, not wanting to be a hurt more than I already was. After every time we spent a day together, Bozer asked if I was alright. No matter how many times I assured him I was absolutely fine, he didn’t seem to believe me and it was because I didn’t believe it either. So I chose another tactic and tried to rationalize what was happening with me since my feelings for Mac began changing. I started convincing myself it was only because of the near death situation and the adrenaline running through my veins that made me feel like I fell for Mac. It was only a crush, not more. Never more. I kept saying it until finally even I thought it was true so when Bozer asked before our first mission for a possible new type of nuke, I told him my so well practiced answer. He didn’t seem to buy it at first, but I was persistent, and I knew after a while he would believe it the same way I did. 

One mission, a fake date, a heart-stopping almost kiss, a kidnapping, a buddhist psycho escaping after Mac and Desi finally reconciled just as most of us expected. The lie I kept telling myself was not enough for me not to feel at least a little bit of pain in my chest, but I only wanted the best for Mac, and if it wasn’t me then what was the point of me being stuck in my head with what-ifs and a crush that might disappear in the next couple of months. So I let go. I told him not to screw up as a good friend and walked away, both literally and metaphorically. 

The Phoenix started to settle into a new type of order, everybody was back in business. Matty and Russ kept bickering about who is the boss, which in my opinion was a lost battle from the beginning for Russ. Mac and Desi seemed to find the common ground that was missing earlier, but sometimes we still heard half sentences as if they were warning shots. But because I was _just_ a friend for both of them, I never asked or tried to guess what was happening. Both me and Bozer were working more inside the Phoenix than outside since most of the missions only needed the force and the genius. Occasionally we were asked to help out the FBI or the CIA, too, which meant Taylor’s connections finally started working. More and more people appeared in the building, and the months were flying past us. We had a certain routine now, which mainly meant after the missions we grabbed a drink together at Mac’s place, but after an hour or two Bozer and I always excused ourselves to leave the lovebirds alone. It had nothing to do with me not being able to handle them together. Nothing at all, because I was definitely over my crush. Definitely… But sometimes it felt easier to say I had some work to do at the Phoenix, so I stayed behind. Just so Bozer doesn’t start getting the wrong idea, I didn’t do it too often but once in a month. 

Five months after Andrews escaped, to Mac’s and most of our frustration still no sign of him was found, Bozer stayed behind with me. He said he had a couple of ideas about Sparky but he had no time for it due to the missions. So he busied himself in the lab while I was working with some system updates. Thanks to my constant updates, our safety systems were like the Chinese Wall, but I still wanted to make sure no one ever got inside our servers. During our next mission Bozer was a lot more quiet than usually but because Desi and Mac had a lot to talk about during the mission, I decided to ask him later. However, later he disappeared so fast I couldn’t even say bye to him. 

Bozer started distancing himself in the next couple of weeks and no matter how many times I asked him what was wrong, he said nothing. The missions were getting bleak, Bozer did not try to joke about things, just silently did his part as Matty ordered, I similarly only talked when they asked me something. The sad part of it was that Mac didn’t even notice something was off with his best friend, he spent most of his time trying not to say or do something that would lead to a fight with Desi, or when things already went down on that road, he just tried to fix it. It seemed he really tried not to screw up this time as I suggested to him. 

In general, the Phoenix was thriving but at the same time things seemed to be falling apart for us. _The family I joined is now just a bunch of people nodding at each other_ , I thought a bit bitterly when we got back from a mission and we were waiting for Matty at the war room. This time Bozer didn’t come with us at all, so I decided: it was now or never, he had to tell me what was happening. 

Suddenly my phone buzzed to tell me I got a text. “Riley, could you please tell Bozer to call me back.” It was Leanna. I haven't talked to her for a while now, I was even surprised she still had my number, because the last time we met she was about to go undercover. It had been more than a year since then. But the fact she reached out to me, finally gave me a solid clue why Bozer was more and more distant. I could not stop thinking about the text the entire time Matty and Russ kept talking about the guy we just captured in Ankara. Honestly, he was in jail, my job was done here, I just wanted to go to Bozer. 

As soon as Matty dismissed us, I waved fast and left the room before anyone could have asked anything. In the corner of my eye I saw Mac open his mouth and turn after me, but I was already steps away and we barely said three sentences to each other outside of the missions lately, so I didn’t feel the urge to stop. I knew I would find Bozer in the lab because it almost felt like he moved in there. Considering the building was getting emptier and emptier I didn’t have to care about hurrying to him, I mean what other idiot would stay in this late except for us. However right at the lab door I collapsed with a massive living wall. At least that’s what the guy in front of me felt like. 

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I didn’t think anyone would be still here” said a deep voice with a slightly recognizable Australian accent. When I looked up to apologize, because it was just as my fault as his, I saw messy dark blonde hair, a genuine smile and light blue eyes fixated on me. The first thing that came to my mind was: _wow!_ but then my mind switched in again. His arms were still around me, catching me from falling, and my hands were resting on his chest. I tried to exclude all my thoughts of admiring how handsome he was, not focusing on his toned chest and strong arms, or that real kind smile I haven’t seen on anyone for a very long time. 

“No, it’s alright, it as my bad, I’m sorry for running into you... I was just looking for Bozer” I stepped away and straightened myself. 

“No worries, I think I have not suffered any injuries” he smiled wider, the wrinkles around his eyes telling me how entertained he actually was. _Come on, Riley, you can do better than this…_ truth be told since Aubrey, and then the very brief crush on Mac, I was not even on a date let alone in a relationship. My head was filled with work and more work and usually I just made sure I was tired enough to go to sleep without the energy to overthink my life. All this time kind of made me forget about how to socialize or just simply react when a handsome, damn, a very handsome man just bumped into me. Or I bumped into him. “Anyways, Bozer is inside, but he is not in a very good mood” he snapped me out of my thoughts. Oh, yeah, Bozer, that’s why I was here. 

“Thanks for the update” I told him and tried to move around him but his figure blocked my way. He smirked a bit on my embarrassment and moved inside to make way for me. 

“After you, Ms Davis” he said while I stepped inside. By the time I moved around to ask him how he knew my name he was long gone. 

“Hey, what are you doing here?” asked Bozer when he saw me approaching him. 

“I just wanted to check on you” I started, not wanting to go way too soon to the main point. “So what have you been up to since you were so busy you left me alone with Mesi?” I tried using the nickname for Mac and Desi for a couple of times just to make sure Bozer knew I was fine with them. Because I was fine with them. 

“Taylor gave me a couple of things to run on Sparky, and he thinks it’s time to move on with some of my ideas as well so I’m just working my ass off before he changes his mind. You know him” he explained which I suspected to be half for the whole story. I was more interested in the Leanna part of it.

“Is that the reason why you don’t pick up the phone when Leanna calls?” I asked and Bozer’s hands froze midair. He took a deep breath, put down his tools and turned to me, finally.

“How do you know?”

“She texted me, asked me to tell you, call her back” I said, and sat down in the chair in front of him. Something was bothering him that much was clear, and I couldn’t see him hurt. He was one of the best people I have ever met, he was a part of my family and I wanted him to be happy. Without any doubt he was the happiest when he was with Leanna, so if there was any chance for them again, I wanted to help. “Listen, I know it’s been a long time, but she clearly wants to see you…”

“She’s getting married” he blurted it out and I stopped. _Oops…_ I swallowed hard while looking for the right words. I was wrong about the whole thing, damn it. “She called me a couple of weeks ago, we met for coffee and she told me she got engaged… with some guy he met during his deep cover. I just... I couldn’t do anything. So I started working, trying to figure out a way to handle this. And then yesterday I got the wedding invitation, she sent the very first one to me, you should be getting yours this week.”

I hated the heartbroken look on his face, but I couldn’t do anything against it. I could have told him everything is going to be alright, we can go together, or we can just miss the whole thing, stay at home and watch any movie he chooses. But I knew him well enough by now, and one thing was sure: he didn’t let fear get to him when it came to the ones he loved. We talked about how to deal with the scary situation during the missions a lot of times, but seeing the person who you love with all your heart, getting together with someone else. You could never really prepare or train for that kind of pain. Instead of trying to say something I myself didn’t believe either, I just hugged him and told him no matter what I am here for him. We spent a couple of minutes in the lab until he got himself together and then decided to head home. When we separated to get to our cars he called after me one more time: 

“Hey, Riley” I turned around and smiled at him. “Thank you.”

“I haven’t done a thing, Bozer” 

“Yes, you did. You listened and understood. Thank you for being my friend, I really need one right now…” I could feel the sadness in his voice. He was thinking about Mac. Yes, we both were slipping away from a friend who was a big part of our patched-up family. But that was all the more reason for the two of us to stick together. 

“Bozer, you can always talk to me about anything, okay?”

“I know” He smiled and opened the door of his car, but before getting inside he just said: “You can talk to me about anything, as well. Anything, no matter who or what it is about, okay?” 

We both knew perfectly well what, or rather who he was referring to. However, there was nothing to talk about. Mac was my friend, so was Desi now, and I was happy for them. End of story. I was happy. I was fine. Before he could have seen the minor break on my perfect mask, I just nodded and drove off into the night. 

🖇🖇🖇

The next two days Bozer was more open, still not as talkative as before but now that I spent time with him in the lab he sometimes started talking about how he felt. The way his hands started shaking sometime… I knew he had a lot on his plate that he was not letting me on in but everyday seemed to be helping. 

“What do you think of this?” he showed me one of his prosthetics.

“Looks like you crossed Thanos and Baby Yoda…” I admitted. We just looked at each other and started laughing.

“Yeah, Hasty Al said it looked like Thanos but as a baby so I guess you two are right” he laughed and then put away that one, just to get another mask which kind of looked like a very lowlife version of Santa Claus.

“Who’s Hasty Al?” asked just to keep the lighthearted conversation going. God knows, we both needed it. 

“Oh, he is the best! He joined us maybe 2 weeks ago, with all the last wave of Taylor’s “upgrade”... Most of them are just following his orders, but Al seems to be a really good fit for the Phoenix: intelligent but not too full of it. He drops by sometimes just to check on me, see what I’ve been doing, kinda like making funny suggestions of what masks I whould do next, and asks about the place. He really enjoys the stories about our missions. Maybe we should grab a drink sometime, you know let the steam off.”

“Sure” I agreed. 

Maybe I didn’t know the guy but if he was this nice to Bozer, especially around this time, then I had to buy him a drink as a way of saying thank you. Not longer Bozer left because Taylor was waiting for him in his office. I kept working on some tests Bozer left for me. As usually I got so involved in my work I didn’t even notice when the door opened behind me. I was just amusing myself with a joke which Sparky was not able to understand, so Bozer still had to keep on working that part, when suddenly a cup of coffee was put in front of me. 

“What the…” I looked up just to see the same light blue eyes, that I ran into a couple of days ago. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you or scare you” he said a playful glint in his eyes. When he said the word “scare” I just raised one of my eyebrows at him. “Not scare you, ‘cause obviously you don’t get scared.”

There was something in his playfulness, the lighthearted way he spoke and smiled, I couldn’t keep a straight face and smiled back. I looked down at the tray in front of me, 3 cups of coffee on it. 

“I am usually not accepting drinks from people whose name I don’t even know, because you know it would be creepy…” I said but the aroma of the drink just hit me, and man, how much I needed caffeine to deal with Sparky! 

“That is very smart of you” he said, just half jokingly. “By the way, my name is Alex. Now grab that drink” my hands were already halfway there, by the time he said his name. After taking one sip, I looked at him gratefully.

“Thank you. And very nice to meet you, Alex, but I gotta ask: what the hell are you doing here? And how did you know I’d be here? Are you following me?”

“Yes, ma’am” he saluted and tried to answer all my questions with a flat face. “I mean, yes, ma’am , I knew you would be here because I met Bozer upstairs and he told me you two are working here, so I thought you might need some energy. Last time I spoke to this…” against all of his energy put into being serious, he stared at Sparky with a wide smile. “Well, this thing tired me out. And no, I am not following you, Ms Davis, I just happened to be working here, too, but for now I was not given any specific task, just to get to know everyone in the Phoenix.”

I couldn’t stop smiling about his whole act put on. When he looked at me, I waved him to put his hands down. He let out a big sigh so dramatically as if he was holding it for years. I rolled my eyes but also smiled a bit wider. 

“Well, Alex, the first thing you should learn then is to stop calling me Ms Davis” I warned him. A part of me still remembered how Mac called me Ms Davis the first time we met, how he put his hands on mine and set me free with a paperclip. “So you are still getting to know the place, hah?”

“Yeah, Russ didn’t give me much to work with” he admitted and took a seat not far from me. The way he said Russ’ name… I could have swore he was not a big fan. And yet here he was. “ Truth is the most I know is because of Bozer. Man, he really loves to talk about The Squad.”

“The Squad?” I asked back though I already knew what he meant. It was just so strange to hear how all the others thought about us. 

“Yeah, I am still filling some of the gaps, but I already heard a very great deal about you, Riley” he smiled at me again, this time with some sort of an appreciation. “You are really something! If I didn’t know about Leanna I’d think Bozer is in love with you based on how proud he is of you.”

“Once upon a time, man…” I started laughing at the thought of how Bozer was hovering around me at the beginning of our friendship just to get my number. It was almost like another life. “Wait, you said he told you abou Leanna?”

“Yeah, poor guy…” he said, honest compassion showing on his face while I was in a shock. He was here for what, two weeks and Boer already opened up to him? I felt like a bad friend, I should have been better at getting him to talk to me. “That engagement really sent him off but I know he can deal with it. I see the way he puts all of himself into fixing the glitches in this stupid robot, how he focuses on fixing things… He can do this, and maybe I don’t know him as you, guys, but he really seems like a great man.”

“Yeah, he definitely is” I agreed while a part of my brain wondered how can a man be this affectionate about people he only met days ago. “What about you? I mean how did you get here?”

“Oh!” The smile disappeared from his face as soon as the topic was changed to him. He scratched his jawline and then with a shrug answered. “Not much to tell, honestly. I’ve been working with the CIA for around 6 years, that’s where I met Taylor, actually, but last year I got bored and left. Now I am here.” 

I didn’t ask any of the questions which suddenly filled my mind because he already seemed to be closing off and the last thing I wanted to scare away a possibly good friend for Bozer. Yet, a part of me made a promise to try to figure out what happened to this man because I didn’t buy it for one second he just got bored… Who gets bored working for the CIA? Nah, something was up and lately I was very invested in helping others, maybe Alex could be my next project. I took one more sip from my coffee, which turned to be empty by now. 

“You need some help with that?” Alex offered pointing at Sparky. The way his face seemed to be pained, I knew the robot told him things he was very offended by. 

“No, I am actually ready, just waiting for Bozer to say bye.”

“Good answer, because I am terrible with technology”Alex admitted. “I bought this very fancy security system for my new apartment… And it took me 3 hours to switch it off the other day” he rolled his eyes, and I just started laughing. He looked at me, trying to look offended but then he joined me. 

“Maybe next time call a pro, hah?” I offered. 

“Why, you really are genius, I would have never thought of that” he smiled again. The next second my phone started beeping, a text from Bozer: _I’m already at the exit, going home now, see you tomorrow._

“I need to get going” told Alex, stood up and started packing my things. He stood up too but didn’t move, just watched as I was getting ready to leave. When I finished I smiled up at him. “It was really nice to meet you, officially, Alex.”

“You, too, Riley, really. Can’t wait to get to know you more” a little bell in my head went off signing we were at the border of flirting. For a nanosecond I thought about all the things I have been through, and how much time I spent on thinking about fixing my heart instead of actually fixing it. I took a piece of paper out of my bag. 

“Well, then the second thing you gotta know about me is that I don’t like my coffee too sweet” I said, a dash of flirtation spicing up my words. “So the next time you want to get me a cup just text me so I can tell you how I’d like it” and I slipped the piece of paper with my number on it. He looked down just for a split second and then with a half smile back at me. Hell, this man was contagious, I already felt it. I took my bag and went out of the door. I was a couple of steps from the end of the corridor when he called after me. 

“What about getting you a drink that doesn’t have sugar in it?”

“Come up with a solid offer and then we negotiate” I answered without even turning around. By the time I got out of the building, a warm thrill spread through my whole body. Yes, I ran out of band-aids and I could not fix my heart for a very long time. But maybe it wasn’t my job to be done. Maybe allowing myself to believe there is someone out there for me was the only thing I could do, and the rest had to be done by a miracle worker, to bandage what was left of my heart.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what happened but this... well this one got me lying awake at night for several hours. I might do a little tag change as certain parts of the story might be not for general audiance.  
> I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joins me on my "I'm gonna make Mac jealous and Riley happy" journey. You asked about the end: this is indeed a MacRiley fic, so they will end up together, and maybe I'll do a little sneak peak into their first date and things, but so far I am in love with Alex. Those of you who watches Chicago Fire: Alex is a distant cousin of Matt Casey, so that's where the charms and the looks come from, hehe.  
> Okay without ranting anymore, enjoy and please leave me your thought here or on twitter (@whatsabex) also I do a little teasing on Twitter if you wanna know about what comes in the next chapter. 
> 
> Oh and Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Chapter 2

After months and months of being alone and stuck first in Mac’s house then in my new place, I kinda forgot all the rules when it came to dating. Or flirting. Hell, even talking to other people who were not already in my inner circle. But I was pretty sure if I gave my number to a guy, that was the perfect hint for him to ask me out on a date, or at least use that number for something! But no text came in the next three days while we were on a mission to catch the son of an old gang leader who was having way too much fun in Brazil playing with not toy-guns. This mission, like most of them lately, didn’t require too much effort from me or from Bozer. I did the tracking down, he stayed with me on the stake out while Mac and Desi went in to actually get the guy. We all did what we were best at, but I started to feel a sort of longing for some real action now.  _ I left because I got bored… _ suddenly Alex’s explanation hit me, and I started to see how that could have happened. My job was less and less challenging meanwhile putting up with the lovebirds actually became more tiring. Both when they were okay or mad at each other, they tended to bicker way too much, and I saw my annoyance slowly show on Bozer’s face, too.

After returning back to the Phoenix, with Mr “Dad Will Hear About This”, I had no intention of joining the team on the usual drinks at Mac’s. When he looked at me, I said I have something to do, but my excuse was way too vague so Mac asked why, or if needed help with anything? Before I could have tried to come up with something, Bozer’s phone started ringing.

“Riley, we gotta go” said Bozer when he ended the call. Mac suspiciously looked at him and me, while in the background Desi seemed impatient to leave already. “Riley is helping me with one of the tests on Sparky, and we are taking the boy on a ride today, I just got the call that we can go now. So you have fun guys, see you tomorrow.”

Mac looked at us for a long time, while I tried to muster up a smile then quickly waved to the rest of the team and hurried after Bozer. He didn’t say a thing until we were at the parking lot then told me:

“You wanna get some drinks at the Detour?” he looked at me with a huge smile on his face, which I haven’t seen for a while. “Come on, girl, I know you have nothing better to do, and believe me I am not in the mood to watch more episodes of Mesi’s Life… but I really could use a bee so I’m meeting Hasty Al at that old bar on the eastern side of the city. Noway, those lovebirds or anyone we know would be there, I promise.”

Even if I was tired I could have never said no to Bozer smiling like that. It seemed he was genuinely excited to meet this guy, and that meant he was becoming his friend. I owed him a drink, that was hella sure. Plus, if I went home now I would have done nothing but think about why Alex didn’t text me, if I was too flirty, or he was not interested and I got him all wrong… And before I could have gone down that hole I nodded to Bozer, told him to text me the address of the place, I’ll be there in an hour. 

“Riley, hey, here!” I heard Bozer’s voice and saw his face popping up from the back of the bar. I happily marched through the people to get to him. “Hey, this is…”

“Alex?!” I asked with sudden embarrassment even though I did nothing to be embarrassed about. 

“Hi, Riley, it’s nice to see you again” oh that smile again. I almost forgot how easily he can make me mirror his happiness.

“Oh, you already met? Why didn’t you tell me, Al?” Bozer asked and moved one chair to our table so I could sit next to him. 

“Al? You are Hasty Al?” I rolled my eyes for not putting two and two together but when I saw Alex’s face turn a little bit red, I knew it was a story worth hearing. “Okay, so how did this happen?”

And in the next couple of hours I got to know all about Hasty Al and how he ran into the lab door because he didn’t see it was closed and even since then he kept running into things, including me, achieving the title: Hasty. Seeing Alex’s confident smile turn into embarrassment then surrender to Bozer’s teasing just to make him happy… it made me forget all about my previous thoughts about being too flirty with him. Alex Hastings was not a man who would have lost my number, and looking at his smile while walking me to a cab so I don’t drive after having 3 beers, I knew for sure, I had a lot more of Alex coming into my life soon. Truth be told, it was one of the happiest night for a very long time, and I couldn’t wait for more.

The next morning I got a text asking:  _ Americano or latte? _ I was already sitting in the war room with the other’s waiting for Russ to show up. He called us in early before our next mission so I had no time to make a good cup of coffee or to go back to the Detour for my car. So I had to take a cab, and let’s say the driver was way too talkative way too early in the morning. I tried calling Bozer to see if he could pick me up, but he was already in the Phoenix. We’ve been waiting for Russ for like 20 minutes now, Desi and Mac talking about something I was absolutely not interested in, Mac absentmindedly playing with a paperclip, I started looking at some CIA files - if I had the clearance or not, that I won’t ever admit - looking for Alex Hastings, but it seemed even if I found one it was classified, most of the information already scrubbed out.  _ That is interesting… Why would Russ want someone in the Phoenix who seems to be an underdog of the CIA?  _ I was right in the middle of trying to find something, when the text came. With a huge grin on my face I grabbed the phone and started answering.

_ Americano or latte? _

_ Is this a serious question? _

_ You are not helping _

_ Oh, was I supposed to? _

_ Yes!!!  _

_ Nah… _

_ Riley! Okay, I’ll just go with my gut  _

_ Choose wisely. _

_ Oh, is this a threat?  _

_ Am I going to be punished? _

_ We’ll see… _

I waited 2 minutes to see if he had a witty reply, but my phone didn’t buzz so I just put it down again, still smiling when I turned back to my laptop. For a second my eyes met Mac’s and a little bit of guilt hit me. Yes, he might have been distant earlier, but he had his issues to sort out. And now we were moving away from him… I looked away first, my heart already swelling with confusion and sadness.

Bozer showed up five minutes later saying Russ is going to be here soon. He sat next to me, asking how I was feeling. He knew I was never better, and I saw his mood being a lot better, too. I couldn’t wait to ask him if he wanted to make Detour our new spot, maybe. But then again, I looked over at Mac, who already destroyed 2 paper clips lying on the table, Desi now standing next to him, obviously getting frustrated. They were still our friends, why did I want to exclude them?  _ Maybe… _ that little voice in my head, just wouldn’t shut up, talking nonsense, but not this time. Right on cue, the door opened again and Russ and Matty walked in.

“Good morning, everyone, excuse us for the delay” Russ used his charming smile, but Matty seemed already annoyed by him, and that meant he was up to something. “We are going to start this debriefing in a moment, we are just waiting for one more person to show up” before we could have asked, because we all were already in the room, the door flung open again, a hasty man running through it.

“Sorry, guys” Alex took a deep breath and smiled. His eyes scanned the room until he saw me. 

“Everyone, please let me introduce you, Mr Hastings” Russ started but Alex stopped him.

“Please, don’t, the last time someone called me Mr Hastings I almost ended up in a prison” he said jokingly, but something told me it wasn’t entirely a joke.  _ Great, one more story to get out of this man. _ “Just call me, Alex, okay?”

“Or Hasty Al” commented Bozer which made me laugh.

“Boze…” I elbowed him in his side but I kept smiling anyways. We needed something to tease this man, otherwise, he would have been way too perfect. And that is a dangerous thing.

“Oh, you think it’s funny, Riles?” this was the first time he used the nickname and it felt strange. Bozer only called me in that name rarely, but someone else did… all the time. The fact that Mac gave me this name and constantly used it, made it something personal between us, and hearing another man say it filled the room with tension. It took all my might not to look at Mac. “If you are already in such a good mood, I guess you don’t need this.” Alex waved a cup of coffee in front of me, and before he could have done a thing, I snatched it away from his hands. He laughed so loud his voice ricocheted from the walls. 

“You already know each other?” Mac asked so seriously, standing up from his chair, that all my joy was gone in a second. He put his hands in his pockets, no more fidgeting with paper clips… bad sign.

“That’s great! It seems Alex did his homework” said Matty, not acknowledging the looks shared between all of us. The smart woman she was, she knew what those looks meant, and she knew perfectly well when to intervene. “I know this is a little sudden, but we have a mission so let’s just get through with all the updates. After much thinking, and taking all of your capabilities in consideration, and how the Phoenix can work best, Taylor and I decided to make some changes. From this day on, Bozer is the assigned supervisor of all activities in the lab, leading all new projects. As no one can go without backup on any mission, Alex is going to join us. If a mission is not above a category C, only two of you will be sent out, and the other two will take care of other matters. Because Desi and Mac are already used to each other and work well” I could swear there was a bit of warning in her look, kind of like saying  _ better prove me right _ . “We have decided to pair up Riley and Alex. Riley has the perfect skills to solve any issue on a mission, and she picked up some of Blondie’s tricks, while Alex is trained to protect her if the mission requires it. Any questions? ”

Matty gave us a lot to process, that was for sure. First of all, I was happy for Bozer, he liked being on the field, but he always felt more useful inside of it. Then the idea of separating us so we can cover more action, it was absolutely fine by me. I was waiting for the time when my job stopped being a smart ass in front of the screen. And being paired up with Alex? Yes, it was a definite yes from me. This way I could get to know him better without actually hacking his files. However, building two teams out of an already unstable one was a straight road to losing the last of our contact with Mac and Desi. I couldn’t think of words to express how that would have hurt. But there was nothing to be done, we had to go with the plan, or face the Boss Lady. No, definitely the first option. 

“Alright, if there are no questions, let’s see your assignment for today” Matty said and some files popped up on the screen behind her. “This is Ethan Carlyle, the owner of several bars on Cabrillo Beach and a lot more including restaurant and surfboard stores. There had been a couple of interesting cases around his area, a so called WaveDust seems to be a new thing for the kids and just in the last 2 weeks 8 people died of overdose.”

“Why is this guy familiar?” Mac asked the same thing I thought about.

“Because you must have seen his father as the Chief of the LAPD” Russ said. “And that is exactly the reason why no one is going after his places, even though several kids were connected to his bar called Detour” Bozer looked at me, and I looked up at Alex. “Then of course most of the victims have rented surfboards from his stores. We have a suspicion he is using the boards as a cover to laundry the drug money. As the police would never go against their Chief, the FBI and the CIA has nothing solid on him, it’s our job to keep an eye on the guy and find something! Have fun on the beach guys.”

In the car ALex admitted, his introduction didn’t go as well as he wanted, while I thought I could have been a lot worse. Desi seemed indifferent, but Mac was clearly not happy about the changes. I knew he was not a fan of surprises and this one definitely didn’t change his mind. However, I assured Alex, he did good the team just needs some time to process everything. At the beach Desi and Mac covered the east side of the store, while me and Alex sat our camp between the store and the Detour to have a clear look on both and cut of Carlyle’s route if he decided to hide in his bar.

“This is going to be a long day” said Alex after sitting for a solid hour.

“Don’t tell me you have never been on a stake out before” I said adjusting my sunglasses just enough to look him in the eye. 

“Of course not, believe it or not but the CIA actually does some work, once in a while at least” we both laughed. “But considering how this guy is surrounded with his buddies inside, I doubt he’ll leave soon.”

“True, but then let’s use our time to finish your  _ homework _ ” I suggested clearly referring back to him being told to get to know us before actually joining us.

“On my defense, I was ordered to get to know how you guys work, to see what I can add into your mix. I read most of your reports about previous missions. Man, I could not believe you survived all that stuff. And then one day I met Bozer in the lab, he seemed pretty sad so I started talking to him asking about stuff so he could forget about whatever was on his mind.”

“I never actually thanked you for that” I said, my voice being all sincere. I wanted him to know how much his support and kindness meant. “Bozer is not just a friend, but he is like a brother to me, and this thing with Leanna… he is trying to hold up but I see how much it hurts him. I think a part of him is still in love with her, but he also wants her to be happy. So you talking to him, being a friend to him meant a lot, not just to him but to me as well.” I don’t know why but I got the urge to hold his hand, squeeze it to make sure he understood me. Before I could have second guessed myself, I did it. For a second he was caught off guard but then he put his other hand on mine.

“If I can help in any way, I will, I promise, Riley. I know you have more than just a squad here, you are family, and I am a stranger to you just yet, but I am not going anywhere anytime soon. Believe me I need his friendship as much as he needs mine” there was that sadness in his eyes again, that made me want to hug him. Even though he didn’t say it, I knew something had to happen to him at the CIA. The look of loss crept into his eyes before he could have turned away. “What about those lovebirds? What’s their story?” he looked to Mac and Desi’s direction, obviously trying to change the subject from him. I let him, but I made a note to ask about his past when we are far from the Phoenix and its missions. 

“Well, that story is a pretty long and complicated one” I said, and I did everything I could to put it nicely. Alex, intrigued, looked at me. “You already know Desi came because Jack had a separate mission and he chose her to take his place until he comes back. So Desi came in as a stranger, too, just like you and look at her now, she is part of the family.”

“Oh, I can definitely see that” he said raising one of his eyebrows while watching the mentioned lovebirds. I looked their way too. Our comms might have been turned off so we couldn’t hear them talk, but I knew Mac’s “what did I do again” face well enough. And next to him Desi seemed pretty pissed.

“Yeah, this is totally normal, you’ll get used to it” I assured him, turning away from them, looking at the store again, hoping something happens soon. “On the job they work perfectly, but there is a reason why Bozer keeps calling them Mesi… because outside the job they are really messy. They broke up like three times already but always get back together after a while so we stopped worrying about them.” 

For a second it actually hit me how indifferent I sounded, like a friend who really doesn’t want to get involved any more than needed. The way it hurt to look at them earlier seemed to be like a lifetime ago. Did it actually work? Did I really cure myself out of that nonsense crush over Mac? I could barely believe it myself. And yet, this relief was poisoned by that little voice in the back of mind that kept saying, it was a lot more than a crush. The feeling to keep Mac safe, do anything to protect him it was not just because he was a friend. The way my chest kept hurting, and I could barely look at them without having tears fill up my eyes… even now that I thought about it, I fell deep back into that misery.

“Riley…”

“I’m fine” I reacted immediately, assuming my thoughts were showing on my face again. Alex was the last person I wanted to know all of that part of our story. If I really wanted this thing to work between us, I had to silence that voice in my head. So I started up my mantra again. “I’m fine, I swear…”

“Riley, look” Alex put a hand on my shoulder to bring me back from my far wandered thoughts. I looked at him. “Look!”

Three guys just stopped in front of building. One of the seemed pretty upset, pushing Carlyle a bit with his surfboard. He gave the man something, a surf wax, and the angry guy stepped away. He nodded and…

“Did he just lick that surf wax?” Alex asked.

“That’s it, that’s how he sells the drug to the kids!” I said and turned on my comm to call Mac and Desi, when the guy who licked the fake wax, suddenly hit Carlyle in the face. His two bodyguards immediately grabbed the guy, while Carlyle started running. “Let’s get him!” I said, and we both started running to cut his way off to his car. On the comm I started yelling. “Mac, Desi, get the surf wax from the tall blonde guy in front of the store, that’s WaveDust! We’re going after Carlyle”

“Riles, stop, let us handle Carlyle” I heard Mac’s voice but did not care a bit. We were closer, and hell, I wanted to finish this mission, to prove I can do more than just type on a computer. I turned off my comm and ran as fast as I could.

“Alex, you go that way, I got this side” he nodded without stopping so we could separate without any delay. Adrenaline spread through my body and I ran faster than ever. I could see Alex from the corner of my eye, bur Carlylewas getting into my path now.  _ You got this, girl! _ I sped up my pace and before he could reach his car I knocked him on the ground. He punched me hard, which I didn’t expect, but made sense since his father was a cop. HE had to teach him a couple of things. I punched him too and even tried to kick him, but he got me down on the ground. As I tried to get up I saw Alex closing up on us, exactly in the same moment Carlyle pulled his gun.  _ Damn it! _ I heard Alex yell, get down, when the gun went off. I took shelter behind one of the cars, while Carlyle jumped into his and drove off.

“Hey, you alright?” Alex got to me, brushing off my hair from my face so he can see me better. 

“Yeah, I’m fine… but he took off” I said with guilt in my stomach. 

“It’s okay, we're gonna get him the next time, you did good,” he said and hugged me so suddenly I had no chance to stop him. But even if I had, I wouldn’t have, because I needed this. When I looked up behind his shoulders I saw Mac and Desi approach. 

🖇🖇🖇

“At least, now we know how he does it” Matty tried to highlight the only positive outcome of the mission. “On the other hand, it was a disaster, guys! How could a 24 years old, non-trained boy, escape 4 of you?” 

I was fully ready to take responsibility for my part when Desi started talking.

“If Riley let me and Mac handle Carlyle, we would have him. She decided to go after him even though we have more training” she said matter of factly. I couldn’t believe my ears.

“Excuse me?” before I could have stopped him, Alex started talking. “You guys were closer to the store, if you paid more attention to the scene instead of arguing over hell knows what you could have caught him before even leaving the spot.”

“You have no idea what you are talking about” replied Mac with anger in his voice.

“Oh yeah? What I do know, is that you were not even facing the store when Carlyle got hit. We were at least 1 minute further than you, which means it was your job to get him. And yet, Riley reacted immediately, going after the guy, instinctively knowing what to do and she could have had him if he didn’t have a gun.”

“And she almost died which means you are doing a pretty bad job protecting her” Mac stepped closer to Alex, the two man, almost the same height only seconds away from colliding. 

“That’s enough, both of you!” Matty ordered them back to their places. After a deep breath she started again. “I know this is all very new for you guys, but we have to work out a dynamic here. No need to point fingers who could have done what now! But it is true, Riley could have been seriously injured today. So as a way of letting off the steam and also to train a bi,see you downstairs in the training room. All of you! You have 30 minutes, now get away from here!”

The two men shared a couple of angry looks, me myself sent a confused and hurt  _ what the hell _ to Desi, and then we all left the war room. Alex encouragingly smiled at me.

“I still think you did really good out there, that punch…” he mimicked mine from earlier. “It was beautiful to watch. I am sorry I didn’t get there earlier, Riley.”

“No problem, you did all you could” I said, happy about how this mission at least proved we can work just fine. “But Matty’s right, I have to work on my fighting skills… It’s been a while since I had a proper training.”

“Well, I am always available if you need a good instructor” he offered, a bit of playfulness glancing in his eyes. Oh, that would end pretty bad. When he saw me considering his offer, he wink and with a smile continued: “Come, let’s check on Bozer before we kick some ass.” 

All of us gathered up in the training room, apparently wanting to see how we worked out our differences. Matty and Russ stood right next to the ring, Bozer not far from them at the back wall, Mac and Desi inside the ring already deep in conversation when Alex and I walked in.

“Perfect, everyone’s here now, so we can start. As Desi is the most trained in the martial arts she will lead this training” Russ said. Alex and I shared a quick glance and looked at Desi motioning into the middle of the ring.

“Okay, so Mac and I will demonstrate a couple of punches and kicks and how to execute them the best. You two take notes and then it’s your turn against me” Desi was all in on this one, that was sure. I had no idea what did Mac do, or didn’t do perhaps but she was definitely furious and it was about to get ugly. 

For the next 10 minutes Desi hit Mac in every possible way, then Mac started attacking back, blocking and attacking again. I tried to remember everything that Thornton taught me back in the early days of the Phoenix: jab, cross, lead hook, rear hook, lead uppercut and rear uppercut. After 20 minutes both of them seemed to be rather exhausted but instead of switching, Mac walked off and Desi waved to me to join her. First it was all the same, practicing the same movements she did with Mac. I felt kind of confident I got this, until the test part. In the first minute I got hit so hard in the face I ended up on the floor.  _ Ouch… that was mean. _ I looked up at Desi, extending a hand to me, but her eyes were cold and hard. Okay what did Mac do, and why was she angry at  _ me? _

“You see,  _ this  _ is why we handle the action” she said. That was all I needed. First she turned on me in the war room, now tried to lecture me? That was the last straw. 

“Maybe next time do your actual job instead of fighting with your boyfriend, and then you can  _ try  _ to handle some action” I replied, a slight flame burning up in her eyes. 

The next round was a lot longer than the previous one. I managed to execute some nice hooks, even kicked her in the chest but in return she repeatedly kicked me on my side. I blocked, tried to back up. Then it hit me: why am I following her moves? I remember what Jack once told me as a child:  _ The cat never runs away from the mouse or it will think it’s the boss.  _ He probably saw it in a movie, but I never asked because he seemed so happy he could say something wise when he taught me how to kick out someone’s legs and punch them unconscious. One second later, Desi was on her back, me on top of her, hitting one last left hook. In the background, Alex and Bozer started clapping.

“Good” that was all Desi said when she stood up. “Now let’s see what you would do against a bigger opponent.” She looked at Mac who was already getting inside the ring, but stopped when their eyes met. It was a long staring contest, but only the two of them knew what it was actually about. After an awkward minute, Desi stepped in front of Alex. “It’s your turn big boy.”

Alex stepped inside, while Mac reluctantly backed off. 

“Nice moves, you got there” he said as he stopped right in front of me with a smug smile on his face.

“Wipe that smile off, it’s not gonna help you” I said and took one step back and got into position, putting my hands up to block his first attacks. Yet he didn’t move.

“Don’t forget to always keep moving, come on, guys, someone attack” instructed us Desi with a bit of annoyance in her voice. I sent her a slight side look, but I got a glimpse of Mac, crossing his arms in front of him.  _ What the hell is wrong with him? _

The next moment, I felt a not too hard hit on my left side. A warning shot, if we want to categorize it. I looked back at Alex who sheepishly moved away from me, as if it wasn’t him who just attacked me. I motioned forward. It took a couple tries to finally get a hang of how he moves, to see he doesn’t shield his head properly. And how he was more focused on throwing me off. He tried to give me advice every time I missed a punch, until I finally hit him right into his face. He took some steps back, touching his nose, and then looking back at me. There was no anger in his eyes, just pure awe, as if he was proud of me I almost broke his nose. He smiled at me and came back to the center, his eyes challenging me to amaze him again. My body reacted to his attacks right away, every time he moved I moved with him. I hear people saying:  _ ouch… wow… that’ll hurt _ but I couldn’t care less. There was something addictive about Alex trying to get to me and me moving right away. The thrill of chasing, and this newly found addiction freed so much adrenaline in my body, my mind stopped working. I tried to knock him on the floor several times, until once he got my kick mid air and grabbed me, turned me around and locked my back to his chest. Our bodies pressed together sent a shiver through my body.

“You are really something, Riley Davis!” He whispered into my ears. 

His warm breath felt like a caress on my skin, reaching parts of my body I forgot about for some time now. For a slight second I leaned into him, but after my mind worked through the sudden error my body caused, I hit his head with mine. He moved back again, when he finally found his stand, looked back at me, pure amusement in his eyes. I suspected he could see the exact same in mine. We charged at each other a couple of times, going hard but not too hard, until Desi started yelling again to start doing something. I launched forward, Alex thinking I was about to punch him, raised his arm into position, when I went down to kick out his legs. One moment later I had him in a strong hold: he was laying on his back, his hand trapped under my knees.

“And I win” I said with a cocky smile on my face. I was so damn proud I could barley think straight.

“Oh, I disagree. I kinda feel like I won” Alex said trying to hide his smirk. I followed his look and I saw that I was sitting on him right around his waist, my two hands positioned next to his head, our faces maybe 5 inches away. The heavy breathing, the sweat dripping off of our bodies, the closeness suddenly hit me. 

“Okay, I think that is quite enough for today” Matty’s voice broke the silence. I stood up, extending a hand to Alex, too. When we faced the others I could see Bozer raising an eyebrow like he was onto some kind of mystery; Russ being amused; Matty looking seriously but something was playing in her eyes. And then there was Desi looking at Mac who was already charging through the door. 

Applause filled the room after almost everyone left the room. Alex was genuinely happy, when we left the ring, heading to the showers. Our bodies were still just inches away, some sort of electricity playing on our skin, and as if they were magnets pulling me closer to him. My breathing was still shallow, my mind clouded with the ecstasy caused by the win or maybe Alex being so close. But suddenly I felt it wasn’t close enough. I wanted that electricity under my skin, not just on it. Just before Alex could have turned left to the men’s shower I grabbed his arm, turned him around and kissed him without blinking. One second is not long, he didn’t need it before he kissed me back, pushing me until my back hit the wall. His lips electrified every bit of my body, and even minutes after I moved away and escaped into the shower, I could feel his touch but a certain guilt followed it. I didn’t want to think about the reason: either going too fast with Alex or seeing Mac at the end of the corridor right after our kiss.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I can't thank you enough for all the kind words you left for this fic, I can't stop smiling! You have no idea how much it means.  
> Second, I am trying to finish this story before MacGyver starts up in January again, so I'll be posting probably every second or third day (if I don't freak out again, as I did yesterday...)   
> Third, I know the previous chapters made Desi seem a bit annoying, but before you could get me wrong I don't hate her I just dont think she is a well rounded character on the show. I'll try to work on that, too.
> 
> Now this chapter and the next one is Mac's POV and I am scared as hell to get him right. We saw him give little signs of jealousy before but I wanted to turn on the notch here, hopfully you'll like it. 
> 
> Okay without any more ranting, here it is, enjoy, don't forget to let me know what you liked or hated, if you have questions! 
> 
> Love ya all!

**Chapter 3**

**Mac**

I spent almost my whole life fixing things. Sure, first I took them apart purposely, but then I could always fix them. It might have taken a couple of tries to get my childhood toys work, and even now on the job, sometimes I had to improvise with my previously improvised idea, but eventually it all worked out. While people looked at a broken thing, thinking it was unrepairable I thought of all the possible ways how it can be brought back to life. Yes, sometimes the result was a very ugly mess but the point remained: if I got myself to it I could fix anything and they always worked just fine. Even when things got rough I could trust myself and the Swiss Army knife in my pocket.

So how was I supposed to move on when I realized I might not be able to fix everything. First my father’s betrayal, trying and failing to start over and over again. Then Phoenix being shut down, trying to start a life outside of it with Desi, failing miserably, again, while also losing touch with my friends. Then we got another chance, and I screwed up again. Codex came and everything else seemed to be inconsequential. Except for Riles… I screwed up, distanced myself, played with the thought of turning into something I fought against since I joined DXS. There was this anger boiling in me, a shadow constantly following my, clouding almost every thought of mine. But Riley was there to remind me of who I was.

After the Codex mess I was almost happy about the pandemic which is probably a sign of me going crazy. I just felt like the pandemic put a pause on reality, gave me time to just breathe again, luckily with Riley on my side. Spending time with her in the house was so natural as if we were living together since I could remember. We didn’t have to talk to know what the other one thought, sometimes I caught myself leaning closer to her on the couch just to feel the heat radiating from her skin. Happiness was a stranger in my life but it just made so much more welcome when it came. Everyday I woke up with a smile on my face, either because I heard Riley already humming in the kitchen, or because I got to see her face sleeping when I snuck past her. Somehow Earth stopped moving, my world narrowed down to her and me and it felt right. Before going to sleep I often thought about grabbing her hand before we almost died, and how calm, at ease she made me feel. I didn’t want things to change just yet, they were way too perfect, and I thought we had time so why not enjoy it for now. Until one day Earth started moving again and the world turned back to reality. My time ran out with Riley walking out the door, moving to a new place, not looking back.

Being alone again, seeing Desi more and more often just reminded me of the failure I was. I tried twice already, why couldn’t I fix us? I cared about her, and I felt it was love, but then why couldn’t we make it work? My nights started to be consumed by the frustration of failing, again. I needed this, I had to prove to myself that things can be fixed, no matter how screwed up they were, and maybe making it work with Desi was the first step. I eventually convinced myself that all I needed was a new approach. Desi and I seemed to be working like two matches put next to each other, but if you put us too close to the fire we both burned, so all I needed was to keep us away from the heat of our arguments. 

Apologies can go a long way, or so I’ve been told, and I tried it. Once, twice, three times… And finally we were back on track but this time with me being ready to abort every time I was about to screw it up. No confrontation meant no arguments, so it should have worked. At least in theory. 

“Mac?” I hear Desi’s voice full of frustration. Yeah, she was talking to me for a while now but my thoughts kept wondering. 

“Sorry, I.. you were saying?” I asked back trying to look innocent, while in the rear-view window I caught Bozer and Riley looking at each other silently. I swore to myself so many times to call them, talk to them about everything, show them I was still here. But things always went sideways, and I had amends to make. Now I barely heard them talk on the missions, or ever and it was slowly killing me. 

“I asked if you wanted to go to that restaurant we drove by the other night?” Desi repeated with a sigh. She was trying so hard, why couldn’t I do the same?

“Sure” I nodded. Desi took a deep breath, that’s when I knew she was pissed. But before she could have said a thing, our target showed up and we had to run. 

By the time we got home from the mission it was too late to go to any restaurant so we just went home and reheated some leftovers. We silently ate next to each other, Desi deep in her thoughts and I didn’t want to bother her but the silence was slowly killing me. 

“Did you notice anything weird with Bozer and Riley?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, leaving the food she was only playing with for a couple of minutes now.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, they were rather quiet today, I admit, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing” she said and stood up to take her plate to the dishwasher. I followed her example, then stood next to the counter. 

“I just feel they are becoming strangers to me… us,” I corrected myself quickly. Desi flinched a little, that was the only sign to prove to me she still felt as an outsider in the group. 

“Listen, Mac,” she turned to me. “We always invite them after the missions, it’s their decision not to come. You can’t blame yourself for something they decide on. Besides, a little silence on the job is actually good, doesn’t distract us from focusing on the job.”

Even though she had a point, my mind could not rest. I spent my night thinking about what could have happened, why they were so distant, and what did I do wrong again. Somehow I always felt it was my fault. Maybe Desi was right, we still loved to have them over after the missions, and they kept refusing or leaving almost immediately, but I couldn’t shake off the thought that I started it. Everytime I focused my attention on doing something, I unintentionally excluded the rest of the world. I knew my promise to make things right with Desi took a lot of effort but I never knew how much exactly. I didn’t hang out with Bozer now every Saturday, I didn’t have my Sunday movie marathon with Riley, and barely talked to each other during the missions because I kept making sure Desi was not alone, she felt I was always there for her. I build up a house of cards with Desi, but in the meantime forgot about the concrete tower my friends were to me. 

The next morning I was keen on trying to make some changes and for the first time since I met Russ I was happy he called us in early. But when we got in no one was there yet, so Desi started to plan our next weekend, when her brother was supposed to visit. Which I totally forgot about while I was busy finding a way to get my friends back. 

“Mac, I can’t believe you would forget about this” she said. The worst part was that she wasn’t exactly angry, she was sad and disappointed. I knew how important this visit was for her, to prove she got herself a life she could be proud of. After everything we have been through, she started to open up to me, telling me things about herself, and her past. Her family was surely her weakness, I now knew it. She was always expected to be a good wife of a doctor or a lawyer, but instead she chose guns, fights, a life her parents didn’t approve of. While on the other hand, her brother was an attorney, had a fiance and was about to get married in a couple of months. Although she said she was happy with how things were at the moment, I knew she wanted to show something to her parents so I suggested inviting his brother to get to know him better before the wedding. And this way we could make sure he took home the message: Desi and I were happy, and making an old fashioned wife out of her would have been the biggest mistake ever.

“I know, Dez, and I am so sorry” I said, regret filling my throat. How could I screw up again? Just before I could have said another word, Riley rushed into the room. She wasn’t in a good mood, murmured a good morning to us and sat down, grabbing her laptop not saying another word in the next 20 minutes. Meanwhile Desi kept asking me where I wanted to take his brother. “I think you know him better, whatever you decide on” I gave a logical answer, at least for me, but Desi seemed to disagree. She kept saying ideas, which I had no clue if they were good or bad, so I grabbed, one paper clip and started playing with it. Then I took one more, by that that time Desi already stood up, saying maybe it would be better to cancel the whole thing and say to her brother we had to work. I really wanted to help her I just didn’t know how. And right on time Riley’s phone started buzzing. A wide smile spread on her face, the same one I saw on her when she texted with Billy years ago. She was flirting, I could easily tell and the ways she bit her lower lip, I knew the guy had to be a goner. I threw my second paperclip on the table, fixing my eyes on her. For a minute we shared a look but she looked away fast. _ If it turns out she is living with a man for six months now I am torching something!  _ The thought came so violently, it even surprised me, and yet I was really getting upset about seeing my friends moving on with their lives and not telling me. No, Riley and I have been there already, she knew if she had someone serious in her life, I wanted to know. Because I was her friend. That was the only reason. Looking at her face I knew this thing was fresh and somehow it calmed me down. I leaned back into my chair, swearing to get to the bottom of whatever was happening with Riley.

After a long delay Bozer, Russ and Matty finally showed up but not alone. A tall figure rushed in after them, a coffee in hand. He was tall, well build, must have served in the military or at an agency before, because he was standing as a real soldier. He was a smiling person, that was clear, but then his light blue eyes got fixed on Riley and she smiled back.  _ Wait, what? _ The voices around me got muted and all I could do is stare at the guy handing over the cup of coffee to Riles. He called her Riles! Realisation hit me harder than a truck: they knew each other and my friends were already his friends.  _ Alex Hastings, what kind of name is that? _ Matty kept talking about all the changes: Bozer the new lab supervisor? The team turned into two teams? And Riley is going to be with this man? I didn't even notice when I stood up but when Desi stepped closer to me, I finally figured that I must have been staring at them for a long time. I took a deep breath, turned my focus to the new mission while my mind remained on Riley and Alex…  _ What is it with Riley and guys whose names start with A? First Aubrey now Alex, what’s next?  _

After the debriefing my mind simply blocked everything. By the time we got to the beach and room our position, my head was divided into two sections: one that was confused and tried to find an explanation when did this guy make his way into our team and the other part thinking about how he didn't even hesitate to take Riley's side, stood only inches away from her and when she turned away his eyes lingered on her a lot longer than it was appropriate.

“You know, we are supposed to be watching the store, not Riley and the new guy” finally Desi’s words got to me. Half ashamed and half indifferent I turned to her. 

“I know… I just can’t believe Matty agreed to bring a total stranger into our team and paring him up with Riley, right away” I tried to explain what was on my mind but most of the things I was thinking were either incoherent or Desi would have misunderstood them way too easily.

“Riley is a smart woman she can handle this” Desi started applying some sunscreen on her arms, slightly turning so she could watch Carlyle from a better angle. She had a good point, Riley was indeed ready for her own missions and I had faith in her being the nightmare of all the bad guys she goes after. And yet I could not get rid of my annoyance, especially when I saw Riley and the guy holding hands.

“I know, but I don’t trust this guy, we don’t know anything about him and I don’t think Jack would approve of this. He chose you on purpose, because he knew you could protect both of us, but this guy…”

“He has a name, Mac! Alex is going to do his job, don’t worry about that, if Matty and Russ agreed on this then I am sure Jack wouldn’t argue with them either” Desi tried again but my mind couldn’t be put at ease. After a minute she left out a loud huff. “I can’t believe you're doing this again!”

“What am I doing, Desi?” I asked and I fully turned to her. I couldn’t believe she didn’t understand why I was upset. I put away my “avoid confrontation at all costs” strategy and looked her deep in the eye.  _ Screw arguing, this is about Riley! _

“You are deflecting again. Every time we are about to do something that could take us forward, something that is important to me, to  _ us _ you find a new obsession to be hooked on” she was truly mad at me, I could see her eyes filling up with tears caused by her anger. “First it was Codex and finding out the truth about your family, now protecting Riley when she clearly doesn’t need you.” This one hurt, I had to admit. 

“I am not deflecting” I almost yelled at her. “Excuse me for trying to protect the last person I can call my family!” And the sentence was out before I could have thought about it for a second. Because if I stopped for just one moment, I would have never said those words. I could immediately see how much I hurt her. Damn, I really was an idiot, wasn’t I? 

I knew an apology would not help on this one, but I couldn't muster up any strength to say a word when suddenly Riley called us on the comm and we realised Carlyle was on the run. He was already way ahead of us so it was their job now. Desi did as Riley said and got the surf wax from one of the guys outside of the store and then charged after Carlyle. We were still 200 metres away when I heard a gunshot and my whole body froze for a second. No! I yelled Riley’s name and started running again just to find her hugging Alex. Desi seemed to be right, she didn’t need me anymore, somebody else was having her back now.

Back at the Phoenix things turned ugly pretty fast. Yes, the mission was not entirely a success but both Desi and I knew that pointing at Riley was not the solution. Even though we knew we were to blame too, because we didn’t keep an eye on the target it still pushed me off the edge when the new guy suddenly started defending Riles.  _ What the hell is this guy thinking? Riles doesn’t need a goddamn knight in shining armor especially not one what’s been here for what, like 10 minutes?! _ But rational thinking seemed to be harder and harder for me since Hastings showed up, so naturally I couldn’t let him lecture us. When we were ordered to have a training session in the ring I could barely suppress my happiness. My hands were already shaking, getting ready to beat him for no exact reason just because he was going on my nerves, and every second he stood beside Riles, or when he put his hand on her back and she didn’t even notice it, it all just gave me thrill to finally let my anger go off.

“I can already see this is going to be interesting,” Desi commented while getting ready in the ring, waiting for the last two members to arrive. 

“I agree… This new guy will cause a lot of trouble, I can already tell. Maybe Russ and Matty should reconsider” I said my eyes still checking the door every nanosecond.

“Would it kill you to let this whole madness go?” she questioned me, standing right in front of me with arms crossed. “We don’t know this guy, he might be a really nice and honest person but since he walked into the war room you have been looking at him like you could drown him in a glass of water, and it is getting really obvious, Mac. You are starting to look like a...” she couldn’t finish her sentence because the people in question just walked in. 

Desi couldn’t express her frustration in words earlier but this training… it gave her all the opportunity she needed to make me understand: we were not on good terms right now. She hit me precisely in every possible way she could but I didn’t really get into it too much. Oh, no I had to focus my frustration on the one person who actually deserved it. When Desi finally found it enough to use me as her personal punching bag she ordered Riley to the ring. As much as I wanted to hit Alex in the face, my anger was suddenly replaced with worry. Desi already made it clear she thought the plan went wrong because of Riley, and I was to blame. 

Even if she couldn’t finish her sentence, I knew what she was thinking about: I was behaving as a jealous boyfriend, and it was ridiculous. I was definitely not her boyfriend or jealous, I just wanted to make sure Riles was safe with this guy. We have been here before with Desi, even if just for a brief minute after Riley moved out. She asked if anything happened, if there was something between us. I couldn’t say anything else but a no, because that was the truth. And even though she was thinking about something, she didn’t ask anything else. I thought maybe because she knew Riley and I were just close friends, but considering how viciously she looked at her now, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

After a couple of rounds I could finally breathe: Riley was not intimidated by Desi at all, moreover, her anger and fire seemed to be contagious and now Riley was charging at her the same way until Desi ended up on the floor. I had to admit she was a real force to reckon with, her eyes burned up with something I couldn’t really define and the way she moved away and back, it just made me watch her in awe. She spent so much time behind the screen I almost forgot how strong and fierce she was. The next moment Desi said she needs to face a bigger opponent and I launched forward as a volunteer but she stopped me. Her eyes talked clearer than ever:  _ you have done enough damage for today, better stop.  _

So I stopped and was forced to watch Riley face the new guy. It wasn’t exactly a fight, more like a heated dance. They were dancing around, trying out each other’s reactions before attacking. For a while nothing really happened but he was definitely enjoying every moment of their fight. He grabbed her close, saying words we could not hear but I had a couple of ideas and all of them made me want to get into the ring immediately. Instead of that I tightened my grasp on the edge of the ring until my hands hurt. Matty next to me cleared her throat and when I looked at her she pointed at my hands. I let go of the rails and tried to calm myself. The last thing I needed was Matty coming after me and questioning what the hell was wrong with me. I knew I couldn’t explain it to her. Suddenly Riley’s eyes fired up again and she charged at Hastings, me being proud of every damn kick that reached the guy. I couldn’t hide my satisfaction and the wide smile on my face when she finally kicked his legs out and got him on the ground. She looked gorgeous in that moment there was no way of denying it. I was about to clap when Riley leaned closer to him ever so slightly, saying something and then the guy smiled and shamelessly looked down at their bodies pressed together, staring at her cleavage. It suddenly hit me how close Riley actually was to him, how their bodies were resonating to each other’s movement, and the worst: how she looked at him.

“I’ll give it a day…” Desi made her bet next to me. My mind could barely comprehend a word but this half sentence joined with the picture of Riley straddling him in front of us... Before I could have done something that would have ended my relationship with Desi, my career at the Phoenix and the new guys’s life I hurried out of the room. 

Desi followed me a minute later, not saying a word just looking at me as I was packing my stuff together. She asked if I wanted to get something to drink, but I said I'm way too tired we should just go home. She nodded and said she’ll wait for me in the car. In a couple of minutes I was already at the exit but my mind was still back at the ring. Riley liked this asshole, that was clear as day. But we didn’t know anything about him, and she already had so much heartache in her life. And of course there was the whole fiasco with Carlyle. I needed to let her know she did a good job out there and it wasn’t her fault. She needed to know she had my full support, and that I was still her friend, she could come to me with anything. I didn’t even think when I turned around to talk to her. I was almost there, just one more turn to the left. And there she was at the end of the corridor walking next to the new guy. My heart quit beating when she grabbed him and kissed him passionately and in return that jerk pushed her hard to the wall. What seemed like an eternity for me spent in hell, was max a minute, and Riley moved away. She turned around to get into the shower but for a moment she saw me. I knew she saw me, and she knew I saw them. With all of my limbs being numb I walked out of the Phoenix to my car where Desi waited for me. When I tried ro open the door did I realise I was holding a paperclip so tightly in my hand it cut into my skin, drawing a bit of blood. 

🖇🖇🖇

The next morning was exactly the same as the night after returning home from the training: full of deafening silence. Desi asked, I answered her in monosyllabic answers. She went to sleep, I said I had some work to do. This time she didn’t fight me. In the morning I woke up on the couch my neck hurting but it was nothing compared to the headache I had which might have been connected to the whiskey bottle on the coffee table. I was never a drinking guy, usually stopped after a couple of beers but the previous day was way too much to handle. Before Desi could have seen it, I took the empty bottle, put it into the trash outside of the house and then headed to the shower. For a while I was only standing and trying to erase the picture of Riley and douchebag kissing. 

Seeing Riley smile at Aubrey, sit next to him while holding his hand, paying attention to every little word he said and looking at him with devotion was hard enough to watch, even if Desi was next to me, and I was happy with her. But I would have chosen our terrible double over and over again, to make sure I never see Hastings stand in the same room as Riles. The cold shower didn’t do much, so I decided headache or not I needed to tire my body, so my mind could switch off for just a little. I went for a longer run than I usually did and by the time I got back, Desi was already making breakfast. She didn’t look mad or sad, for that matter but she was definitely deep in her thoughts. She put a plate out for me by the time I got out of the shower for the second time that morning, with a note next to it saying:  _ I went to the gym, see you at the Ph. _

Again it was just me and my not resting thoughts, wandering back to yesterday. I tried so hard not to think of them but the images seemed to be engraved in my mind now. Certain moments were way too vivid for me to handle, so before I could have descended into madness again I got in my car and headed to the Phoenix. On the way there I tried to think of a rational explanation for my behavior but I always came back to the same thing: I couldn’t let anything happen to Riley. Yes, I was stupid enough to let her and Bozer slip away but they were still the closest thing I could call a family and I needed them. Suddenly the same desperation hit me as the day before: to talk to Riles, tell her everything that was on my mind. I knew she would listen no matter how distant we were to each other, I knew she would understand me. Or at least I hoped I didn’t screw us up too hard. But then again the last time I wanted to talk to her didn’t end so well for me. I tried not to let those thoughts enter my mind again but yet they did. I grabbed the wheel with all my might. If I couldn’t keep calm when I was far away from them, how was I supposed to be in the war room in 20 minutes seeing them smiling at each other, the jerk putting his hand on her casually.How was I supposed to look at them and not think of yesterday, their touches and how much I wanted to be the one who… 

“FUCK!” suddenly this one word burst out of me and I hit the wheel madly. Here it was, after all the logical thinking, my mind wandered back to my last thoughts before the whiskey switched it off: I was mad because I wanted to be the one who stood next to Riley, who caressed her face, who told her how insanely beautiful she was in that ring, and then push her so hard on the wall we both forgot about the whole damn word. I had to admit Desi was right I was behaving as a jealous boyfriend, because I was jealous and it was killing me. But the worst part was that I made it clear to Dez before even I knew it. She pointed it out clearly and I dismissed the idea and with that just gave her more validation. Not a surprise she wasn’t willing to talk to me. I had to pull myself together. I was ruining my already weakened friendship with Riley, my fragile relationship with Desi and I didn’t have a clue how to fix them without doing more damage.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Mac” Matty said good morning in her own way. I murmured a sorry under my nose, grabbed a bunch of paper clips from the bowl on the table,and put all but one in my pocket. I knew well enough I needed the distraction. “So as I was saying: yesterday could have gone a lot better. But it’s done now, we can’t do anything about it. What we still can do is catch the guy.”

“I don’t understand,” Desi said, standing 2 feet apart from me. Bad sign. “We got the evidence now that he is using the surfboard store and the surf was to sell his drugs. We got the proof the FBI needed, why don’t they take the guy down?”

“Because we screwed this up, we have to fix it, too” answered Riley and Matty nodded approvingly. 

“That’s right. You made a mistake, all of you, and now you will make it right by getting this man before his drugs could kill more innocent kids” Matty continued. “Which is very likely to happen because it seems Carlyle has paid for a very fancy party at the Pérignon Hotel in Lyon. And we all know if we pay for a party we always show up for it, so your job is very simple: get to Lyon, dress up as pretty as rich kids and go to the party. When you find Carlyle, get him out of there as discreetly as possible. The pairings are still the same: Mac and Desi, you’ll be there first, Alex Riley you go after them. If you have no questions then the plane leaves in 15. But I’m going to say this again: no more mistakes.” 

Matty put on her strict and hard look, making sure we all got the message right before she dismissed us, Desi left the room first then Russ. Hastings and I arrived at the door almost at the same time, with Riley behind us, but Matty asked her to stay for a second but sent us out. Outside Hastings looked at me, apparently wanting to say something.

“Listen, Mac,” he finally started talking. “I know you are worried for Riley, I know how close your team is to each other, but I promise you I know what I am doing, she’ll be safe with me.”

“And what is it you are actually doing?” I asked back almost immediately.

“I’m doing my job, what I was told to do: go on the missions, make sure Riley is protected while she saves our asses with her beautiful mind” he said. A second later he narrowed his eyes and asked back. “The better question is what are you doing, MacGyver? ‘Cause you haven’t been too interested in the well being of your friends earlier as far as they told me, and suddenly you are all over the place just to make sure I don’t stay too long. I know a lot about how your team works but am I missing something here? Because I feel like it..”

“What you are missing is that Riley is important to me and I don’t like how you come and try to sweep her off of her feet. She’s been hurt before and I am not gonna let that happen again, understood?” My blood was boiling with every word I uttered. He didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t worry, I am not trying an angle here, I am just here to help her… in any possible way she needs me” he said, a little bit of a smile playing in the corner of her mouth. How much I wanted to beat him for it! He left before I could have made a move but my hand in my pocket destroyed a paper clip not caring about the scar it would make. The door to the war room opened soon and Matty left. She looked at me suspiciously but didn’t say a word. I hurried in the room to find Riley deep in her thoughts. 

“Hey, you okay?” I asked when she didn’t even notice I walked in. She looked up, shaking her head and putting on a smile.

“Sure, I am fine.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you earlier,” I said when she stood up to leave. She stopped in front of me, looking at me curiously. Okay, here we go… “Riles, what do you know about this guy?”

“His name is Alex, Mac” she said with a deep sigh. “Listen, I know we had our fair share of people screwing us over, but don’t you think Matty checked every goddamn thing about Alex, before letting him in?”

“I am asking what do  _ you _ know about him, Riley!”

“I know as much as he let me know.” Her voice hardened. I stepped on a land mine and now there was no way of coming back. “Anything else?”

“Riles… I just…” I didn’t know how to say what was on my mind without exposing myself more than I already have. “I don’t trust him.”

“You don’t seem to trust anyone lately” she said with bitterness dripping from her voice. I must have messed up our friendship way too much earlier because she felt worlds apart from me. I stepped a little closer to her looking deep in her eyes. 

“I trust you, Riley! And you should never doubt that, it doesn’t matter what happened since Codex and everything else!”

“Mac, I know things have been rough for us for a while now, but I am still here, and yet you are slipping away” her voice softened a bit, sadness gathering in her eyes with heavy tears following. I did this. 

“Riles..” I closed the gap between us, framing her face with my hands, caressing her cheek to calm her down. Nothing ever felt so right, or heart warming than the look she gave me. “I am here too, and when it comes to you, I’ll always be here. You got me! We don’t need these stupid changes, or anyone else. Just you and me.”

She stepped away as if I burned her.

“You are wrong, Mac, we needed this. I needed this. You might be happy with how things were before, good for you, but I can’t just sit tight and keep watching you from a van. I know you are worried about me but you can stop it. I’ll be just fine, and Alex is going to be there if something happens. It’s okay if you don’t trust him. Just trust me.”

She took a deep breath and started to walk to the door. Right before she could have stepped outside my mind turned off and let slip one more sentence.

“He is going to break your heart, Riles…”

“Maybe...” she turned back to look me in the eye. “But someone already did a good job breaking it.”

Desparation got the better of me when I tried to hurry after her but she ws already gone, and more and more people started staring at me. I surrendered to the nearest bathroom and washed my face with cold water and stared at myself in the mirror.  Again, I tried to fix something and ended up breaking it more. When will I stop? What is wrong with me? Questions were piling up now without any answer. Helplessness filled up my body and without thinking I punched the mirror, shattering it into a hunder pieces. My hand started bleeding but all I could look at was my picture distorted by the cracks on the mirror. Maybe I couldn't fix things because I was broken into way too many pieces, too...

🖇🖇🖇

During the whole trip to Lyon one word is not much, but Riley and me haven’t uttered it. Meanwhile, Desi and Alex seemed to be in a good mood, talking about previous missions. Desi was helpful, apparently not minding there was a new member added to our team. Rile sat as far as possible from me, not looking anywhere else but out of the window or back on her screen.  _...Someone already did a good job breaking it... _ She could have grabbed a gun and shot me, it wouldn’t have hurt this much. Russ could arrange rooms for us in the hotel, so we could get ready as soon as we arrived, and this way we had a place to keep Carlyle until we got him out of the building. Riley made sure during the party the cameras were put on a loop so the guards wouldn’t have seen when we dragged him to one of our rooms. All we had to do is not screw up this time. Based on what an impeccable job I did on that front lately, I wasn’t too eager to go on this mission. 

Not much after the party started, I went downstairs to take my position. Shortly after Hastings showed up, ordered a glass of champagne at the other end of the bar and kept his sight on the gathering crowd. We were there for half an hour when Desi joined us in a beautiful red dress, drawing many people’s attention. She nodded to me and suited herself at a table not far from the back wall. Riley told us on the comms that he will stay upstairs and keep an eye on the cameras until Carlyle joins his friends. It only took a bit more than an hour for the asshole to finally show up and he made hell of a show to make sure everyone knew he was there.  _ What a prick. _

Riley showed up a couple of minutes later and it felt like the moment froze when she started walking down the stairs in her high heels, her hair perfectly straight, flowing down on her back. Her eyes ran through the room, looking for someone familiar when she finally found me. She hardened her look, she knew we were not supposed to know each other as according to the invitation, she was the plus one for Michael J. Spencer, leader of an Australian drug gang. From the corner of my eye I saw Hastings stand up, approaching her while checking out every bit of her body. Just like I would have done if her eyes didn’t put a spell on me in that moment. Her lips, red as blood, pressed together slightly but a small smile lingering in the corner of her mouth, showing she knew just fine how she effected every men and hell even women on the room.

I saw her in a black dress before and I could objectively state that she was probably the most beautiful woman on Earth. But the way I couldn’t stop staring at her now walking down the stairs, the dress hugging her figure as if it was her second skin until her waist then opened up and came down in waves. I swallowed hard. I knew for a while now that Riley Davis was someone you never ever tried to go against but this look here… with the phantom thoughts from my previous night where I wished I could have been the one pushing her to the wall. I knew this woman in front of me could have brought any man to his knees. Me included... I would have done it happily. But her eyes left mine and moved to that bastard next to me and I was left alone, mouth dry, head dizzy, heart rate in the sky. I never hated anyone so passionately in my life than Alex Hastings when he slid his hands on her waist and whispered something into her ears. 

“Here” Desi sat down next to my chair and put a glass down. “Sorry they ran out of the bubblegum cocktails but I guess whiskey fits tonight better anyways.”

She looked beautiful in her red dress, too, and should have told her. I looked her deep in the eye, trying to put together a normal sentence but I just couldn’t. My eyes were fixated on Hastings, whispering in Riley’s ears as if it was the most natural thing for him to do. Their closeness made me stiff in my chair.

“We are going to move in closer, Carlyle is dancing with some girls, we’ll approach him” I hear Riley say in the comms, then saw her motioning to the middle of the dancefloor. The music in the background gave them a slow but steady rhythm to start moving, their bodies pressed together.

“If looks could kill, Alex would be dead” said Desi next to me. Again, I was stupid enough to forget she was right next to me. “Don’t even bother, Mac. This is not the place or the time to get into it…”

“Dez…” I tried to look away from them, but it felt like I reached my peak of masochism and I kept staring. Riley had moves I didn’t see before and a little scientific voice in my head said those moves under different circumstances could kill a man and he would be happy to die this way. 

“If you don’t want to screw up things more than they are you just shut up now, and keep you eyes on Carlyle, instead of them,” Desi gave me a cold look but a useful advice. I just nodded and with all my leftover strength moved my head to drink all the whiskey in my glass. Just right on time, when Riley turned around, now with her back pressed to the douchebag’s chest, who hid his face in her neck, there was some movement around Carlyle. He stumbled away from the girls and tried to get out of the crowd, clearly drunk already.

“Guys, Carlyle is going up with the elevator” Bozer’s voice filled our comm. 

“We are on it, stay on the comms” said Riley almost immediately and she started moving. Her hands still intertwined with the new guy’s pulling him closer and closer to the elevators. She was acting tipsy and flirty, clinging to his side. When they approached the same elevator Carlyle used, one of the guards motioned forward, me following his lead, did the same, but Desi held my arm back when Riley kissed Hastings and the guard returned to his post. The pair laughed and played around just enough for the guards to think they were just one more of the rich, drunk fools going upstairs for a round. I used what was left of my brain to say: it is just an act, they are doing their job. But the last thing I saw before the elevator door closed was Riley putting her hand around the douchebag’s neck, dragging him down for a kiss, and his hands slithering around her waist pulling her close to him until they seemed like one body. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I don't hate Mac, really. But you know first you gotta destoy some things if you wanna build new ones.   
> So next chapter is going to be Riley again, and then Mac again.   
> I am really eternally grateful for your comments and support. Some of you even tweeted about your favourite parts which is amazing, I love you guys so much.   
> In this chapter I wanted do a little bit of justice for Desi though I am not sure she deserved it or how much you care about her, I felt she deserved a bit here.   
> Anyways, enjoy as much as you can this chapter, I swear good things are coming in the next one... (believe me chapter 6 is gonna be the killer, literally). Let me know what you liked about this chapter, your favourite line or just in general what you thought here or on Twitter @whatsabex.
> 
> Love ya!

**Chapter 4**

**Mac**

“We got eyes on, Carlyle” Hastings informed us not much after Riley and him got into the elevator. I felt as a part of the weight that’s been on my chest had been lifted. Knowing they were not still kissing in there made me breathe again, but only for a minute. 

“Okay, he is on the 6th floor, guys and he has at least two guards outside of his room,” Riley continued. “We could use some back up.”

She couldn’t even finish the sentence, we were already on our way, leaving the party behind, and approaching them from behind by using the stairs. When we stopped at the 2nd floor, Desi kicked off her high heels, grabbed them in her hands, holding them as weapons. Well, in her hands, even the cutest plush toy could have been a weapon, I knew that well enough. We were around the 5th floor, when we heard the first shots. Desi looked at me for a split second and then we started running as fast our feet could take us. 

By the time we got to action, Riley was already bleeding on her head, Hastings was finishing up one of the guards to go help her, but Desi beat him to it. I ran to check on Riles.

“Hey, you okay?” I checked on her wound, it was probably a cut from hitting head to the edge of a nearby table. 

“Yeah, I’m fine, go help Desi” she ordered me, but by the time I actually got up from kneeling next to her, both guards were taken care of. 

“Did  _ you _ break his left arm?” Desi asked Riley with mild enjoyment. Riles just looked back at her and gave her a shrug. “Nice job!” 

“Okay, let’s find that bastard, get the hell out of here before these big boys wake up” Hastings suggested and it was the first time I agreed with him. It was a weird feeling but I had to get used to it. 

The door was open proving that Ethan Carlyle was an egoist prick, thinking no one could ever approach him because his giant guards cannot be taken down. Well, looking at them being dragged into a supply room, tied up, yeah, Carlyle was wrong. Desi and Hastings took the weapons from the big boys sleeping on the floor and went inside first to make sure no one else attacked us. 

“Clear,” Hastings signed and we went inside. The suite was grandiose just like expected but Carlyle himself was nowhere to be found. “Where the hell is him? We saw him come in.” He looked at Riles for validation who only nodded and kept her gaze on the room looking for something. 

“There it is!” she finally found what she was searching for so intently. _Computers, of course..._ She started motioning to the backroom, probably to save all data so we had every tiny piece of evidence to lock him up. Desi started checking the bedroom, Hastings took a look at the bathroom while I was looking around the kitchen. 

Second later, I heard one sharp inhale from Riley and I was already running to the backroom. She was frozen in place, Carlyle standing behind her, holding a gun to her temple. My eyes were locked together with hers when Hastings saw me stare and came back to the living room. 

“You were the ones at the beach,” Carlyle said. “Who sent you? The FBI?”

“Let her go, and maybe we’ll answer your question” Hastings said, taking one step closer to him and Riley. I could see the gun hidden behind his back. He only needed one second to get it ready, I knew it, but with Riley being held so viciously close to another gun, I would have never tried. It was way too high of a risk. 

“Or I could just shoot her, and then the rest of you. I am not so interested in who the hell you are, anyways” he said, grabbing Riley and starting to move. 

“Oh, I believe, your father would be very much interested,” Hastings tried again. Carlyle's eyes travelled to him, giving me just enough to move half a step closer. I was going to get to Riley, before he could have thought about pulling the trigger. Or else I was going to die trying to save her. I searched the room for anything that could have helped me distract him while Hastings played on. "What is it, Ethan? Are you scared daddy might get mad? Yeah, I guess he didn't buy that bar for you just so you can start your drug lab."

Hastings was playing a very dangerous game. If he pissed Carlyle off too early, we would have lost Riley right then and there. But we needed a distraction so I could come up with something. 

“Not so fast, blondie,” Carlyle warned me. I stopped right where I was not risking anything to happen to Riles. I couldn’t help her without putting something together, or getting the gun out of his hands. That’s it! Hastings was around two steps away from him, he could have grabbed the gun if Carlyle didn’t pay attention to him. I gave the new guy a side look, trying to communicate with him. He gave me a nod, so slight only I could see it. 

“Alright, I am not moving an inch,” I said putting my hands up in the air. “Let her go, Carlyle.”

“No, I kinda liked her coming in to the party, she seems like good company,” he said, his grip tightening on her neck.  _ So help me God, when I get my hands on this mean, he is going to beg for death! _ Riley took a shallow breath, her eyes looking for anything to help her out. She was spiraling the same way I did so many times, and she was always right there. 

“Riles, hey,” I tried to make her look me in the eye. She had to stay calm, we had it under control, Hastings was almost there. “Hey, look at me! Good, look me in the eye and take a deep breath. That’s it, good, just breathe and don’t take your eyes off me. Everything is going to be alright.”

In the next moment, a gun went off. Riley fell forward, I caught her in my arms before she could have ended up on the floor. Not looking anywhere else I checked her, but I found no wound. Unlike our bad guy. Carlyle was too amused by me trying to calm Riley down, to see that Hastings got his gun ready and shot him right in his shoulder, then Desi got the gun away from him. Riley was still heavily breathing when I realised, Hasting shot the guy while he was standing right behind her.  _ I’m going to kill this man with my bare hands! _

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” I yelled at him when Riley was finally safe sitting on a couch, and Carlyle being patched up by Desi before he could have bled out in front of us. “All you had to do is get his gun!”

“Relax, Mac, it was a clear shot” he said putting his gun back into his belt, stepping to the door.  _ Oh no, he is not getting away this easily.  _ I grabbed his suit and threw him so hard to the nearest wall it could have left a hole. My right arm was already in position to punch him. Desi was right if looks could kill this guy would have been dead by now. At least 6 times according to my count. 

“Clear shot, my ass! Riles was one inch away! Can your one brain cell actually process that you could have killed her if you screwed this up? One shaking hand and she would be bleeding out here on the floor!”

“I was a sniper in the army, MacGyver” Hastings replied as if that would have calmed me down. “I know well enough what I am doing, so instead of attacking me could you start doing your magic, that I heard so much about? Let’s see the famous MacGyver!”

“Angus MacGyver?” Carlyle asked suddenly. When we all turned to him it was obvious he knew who we were, but especially who I was. He was grabbing his shoulder where Hastings got him, now fully bandaged by Desi. 

“Yeah, how do you know my name?” I asked curiously. In my head I decided to have a chat with Hastings later about how we do things here. I kept my focus on Carlyle while from the corner of my eye I saw the jerk kneel in front of Riley, checking if she was alright. “I’m still waiting for an answer, Carlyle, how do you know my name?”

“Let’s just say we have a mutual friend,” he said. Desi and Riley immediately stepped closer to me, Hastings, having no idea what those words might imply looked at us waiting for an answer. Carlyle, seeing our reaction, put a smile on his face just to annoy me more. Little did he know I was already on the edge of snapping. “Oh your reputation precedes you, MacGyver. Hell, you are becoming a hell of a celebrity lately. The genius who lost everything, and yet not willing to see the truth in front of him.”

That was it. I grabbed his shoulder and put pressure on it just enough to see his bandages to start soaking in his blood. He winced in pain but kept his eyes on me, as if he was challenging me. Any other day, I might have just let it go, but today, after everything, there was this murderous voice in my head that kept saying: teach him a lesson. Somewhere from behind me I hear Desi calling my name, then Riley telling me to stop.  _ Damn it… _ I punched Carlyle so hard, he passed out immediately. 

“Could someone tell me what the hell is going on here?” Hastings asked, reminding me, Carlyle wasn't the only one I wanted to punch in the room. 

“No” I answered him.

“Alright, man, I have no idea what's your problem but I have to know what he meant by knowing your name because you have a mutual friend” Hastings just could keep his mouth shut and it was getting on my nerves. 

“You wanna know what my problem is?” I asked furiously, already charging at him. “You. You are the only problem here right now. Coming in, pretending to know everything better, seemingly protecting Riles… Tell me how almost shooting her means that you are protecting her? For me it looks like the opposite! You know what? I don’t have a clue why Matty and Russ brought you in, but let me get something clear: if she gets as much as a scratch or a bruise on her while you are supposed to be keeping her safe, you are going to wish you never met me because I’ll make you feel pain you never even imagined was possible…”

“MAC!” Riles shouted at me, and pushed me away from the jerk. “Stop it right now! We have to get Carlyle out of here before anyone notices he’s gone.”

“Riley is right, we might be already too late,” joined Desi. “So let’s come up with a plan that gets us all out of here alive and then you two can do whatever the hell you want. 

After running around in the rooms trying to figure out a way to drag this idiot out of the building without having to fight any more guards the only plan we could execute with me creating any chaos or blowing up most of the place while a party was happening downstairs was sneaking him out. While we were looking around to find one of the carts housekeeping used we ran past a door.

“Dez, hey!” She stopped and came back to me.

“What is it?” she asked when I opened the little door at the end of one of the corridors.  _ Jackpot! _

“This is a laundry chute, almost the same as a trash disposal chute but in hotels this makes it a lot easier for the maintenance to deliver the laundry to the laundry room without actually having to drag it through the hotel” I explained and tried to fit myself into the hole. If I could fit into it, so could Carlyle. “It’s a one way ride, if we push him down here, he just lands on a bunch of sheets, one of us gets the car, the other waits at the laundry room to collect this dirtbag, and two of us stay here until everyone is in position. When Carlyle is already in the car, we grab our stuff from the 4th floor and get away as fast as possible” I detailed our new plan to Riley and the new guy. They both nodded and then started moving. 

“I’ll get the car,” Hastings said, seemingly very eager to get away from me. 

“I’ll be at the laundry room, wait for our signals,” Desi hurried out of the room, leaving me and Riley alone. 

A part of me expected her to be mad at me, yelling as soon as we were left alone, but instead she just stepped to the window and stared at the stars.  _ How could I take my eyes off of her before? _ She has always been beautiful, but lately it seemed like my senses were heightened and now every little thing felt like a hit: the way she smiled, moved her hips, wrinkled her forehead while thinking, or as her eyes filled up with tears. Like right now. 

“Riles, I…”

“Let me guess, you are sorry, Mac?” She turned around finally, her eyes cutting into my soul like knives. “Yeah, it seems like you are getting used to saying that. Whatever you do or say you just go to Desi, or me and say sorry, and you think that’s it, problem solved? Well, let me enlighten you: no, nothing is solved, Mac. You are behaving around me as if I was made of a porcelain, breaking any second if you don’t protect me. I had enough of that from Jack. You and I have been working together for years now, you should know by now I don’t need this! I really don’t know what is happening to you Mac…”

“Nothing is happening,” I tried lying. Oh, there were a lot of things going on, but most of them were in my mind and she didn’t have to know about them.

“Clearly.. You just naturally behave as a dick, going on fill overprotective mode with me, arguing with Alex about everything and threatening him, torturing this idiot!” She had a point. “Mac, you are not yourself and I am worried about you. It feels like you are not even the same person I…”she stopped mid sentence even though I would have given everything to hear what she wanted to say. “It feels like you are going down on a dark path like you did back…”

“What? Back with Codex?” Now it was my turn to be mad. “Damn, Riles, you have been there, you should know better than anyone what and why I was doing all of that. I am still me.”

“Oh yeah? You barely spoke to me and Bozer for months, and now that Alex is here you go on this whole rampage? I am sorry but I can’t follow your genius anymore. You are putting off the missions with your behaviour and by that put all of our lives at risk!” She wasn’t going to hold back anymore I could see it in her eyes. “I decided to talk to Matty as soon as we get back. I am sorry but we just cannot work this way, it’s not good for you or me, so I’ll ask her to put us on separate missions from now on.”

“WHAT?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Yes, I made mistakes and lately they were becoming bigger and bigger but… I couldn’t imagine never working with Riles again. I’ve already wasted months with being distant and not talking to her. And now she wanted to exit my life? No, no… “Why are you doing this, Riley?” She didn’t answer me but started walking towards the door. No, she wasn’t leaving. Not like this. “I just don’t want to see you hurt!”

“Then stop hurting me!” Her voice broke me even more than I was before. She wasn’t mad, I could tell. She was heartbroken. And the more I tried to help her, show her how much she meant to me, how much I cared for her, I just alienated her more.  _ Maybe I should stop using words, they just mess up everything… _

“The car is ready” we hear Hastings on the comms.

“The laundry room is clear, too, you can send the package.” Desi was in position, too. 

“Wow, you guys are tense” Carlyle suddenly spoke, signing us he was awake. I should have hit him harder. “Oh, please, don’t stop for me! I am enjoying this little love quarrel,” before I could have punched him unconscious again, Riley took a roll of tape from a nearby drawer and made sure Carlyle stayed quiet.

It took us a couple of minutes to drag Carlyle to the laundry chute but when we got rid of him sooner than he could have blinked. 

“Got him,” Desi said. “Taking him to the car. Alex, ready?”

“Yeah I am at the backdoor, need any help?”

“No” we could hear a loud thump, as if someone was hit hard with a heavy object. “Everything is under control. Mac, Riley get the hell out of there.”

She didn’t have to say it twice, we were already on our way to the stairs, not risking to run into anyone at the elevators. We were almost at the door, when we heard the elevator open and I panicked. We can’t be seen here just running from the stairs. Our breathing was heavy from hurrying and we both looked like a mess, if a guard looked at us now, we could have been in big trouble. Riley looked at me as if she thought the same, the question in her eyes asking: what now? 

Without overthinking anything, one of my hands slipped behind her, pulling her whole body to me by her waist, and my other hand grabbed her neck, moving her closer as if I was about to kiss her. We had been here before, at the picnic. The longing hit me hard back then even though I was working on Desi and me, I could still say being with Riley, having her on my side, looking deep in her eyes was the right place for me. But now, this feeling was mixed up with so many others I could barely think. My lips were almost touching hers, for a split second they might have met but it was so light as a feather. Both of our eyes were open, never leaving each other alone. Whatever I was feeling she had to feel it too. It wasn’t adrenaline, I knew well enough what that was like. No, this was a magnetic field, pulling me close to her, her hands sliding up on my chest until they reached my face, felt like she was scorching a trail of fire on my body and I was willing to die the slowest death of burning, just to have her here with me, for the rest of my life. This feeling was not explainable with any kind of science but it could not be misunderstood: I wanted her with every bit of me. Her breath lingering on my skin, her fingers shaking as she touched my face, her pupils widening as she looked at me. She felt it, leaned in and we were at the edge of glory.

“Get a room!” One of the guys passing us yelled with a heavy laughter. We finally had a grasp on reality again and moved away.  _ Yeah, room, we should, oh god... _

Riley didn’t even give me half a look while packing up her things, stopping the loop on the cameras. Going down with the elevator she stayed as far as possible from me, and yet our shallow breathing was still in sync. I closed my eyes, adjusted a bit on my tie to be able to breath normally, even though I knew it wasn’t the tie. One second. That’s all I needed to realize: Riley Davis was a drug, my personal drug, and now that I was about to lose her I was going crazy.

“You care to explain why there is a hole in Carlyle’s shoulder?” Matty asked when we got back to the Phoenix after possibly one of the longest flights I ever had to endure. No one, and by that I mean literally no one said one word for hours. We didn’t even look at each other, we all just looked out of the windows or slept. Carlyle tried to say something under his taped mouth but thankfully Desi put him back to sleep as soon as he woke up. She seemed rather happy with this part of the job. 

“Well, he was in the way of my gun,” Hastings said and if I didn’t hate him so much I might have even smiled. 

“That sounds like a Jack Dalton-line,” Matty commented with a glint in her eyes. No matter how they always kept bickering she must have missed him just as much as I did. Especially right now. I hardly looked up from my hands which were fidgeting with a paperclip again but I could still feel how Matty’s look burned me. “Alright, if you have nothing else to share with me, I’m going to join Taylor to see what Carlyle is really up to and what mutual friend he mentioned to you guys. Otherwise, good job. Go home have some rest, now.”

My eyes were now fixed on Riley waiting for her next move. She told me she was going to talk to Matty about separating the teams permanently and I wanted to be there to make sure that never happened. I was losing her with every move I made and it was driving me crazy. No matter how much I hated to see Hastings around Riley, I had to prove her I was sorry. When I saw her stand up and try to follow Matty I acted without thinking. 

“See you at my place then?” She looked at me with confusion. “We had a successful mission, maybe not our best work but we did it so the tradition remains: beers at my place. Yes, you too, Hastings…” It pained me to say it, but he had to be invited, too. Riles was right. I was asking for apologies all the time lately without any real proof of actually being sorry. 

“Sounds fine to me. We can always reschedule the dinner.”  _ Excuse me, he said dinner? He is taking her out for dinner? _ Before I could have seen all red again, I nodded and turned to Riles.  _ Please, say yes!  _

“Sure, see you at 8, we are bringing the beers,” she said and I tried my best not to flinch when she said  _ we. _ They were now a we? Wow, I might have just made the biggest mistake of my life… But when Riles gave me an encouraging smile, I knew it was the right move. 

When they left I finally let out a breath I didn’t even know I was holding and allowed myself to smile a bit.I mean we had a successful mission: we got the bad guy, I could see Riley in a black dress, I didn't kill Hastings for touching her and looking at her in a way his eyes should be carved out for, and now I could hijack their date and in the meantime, kinda made Riles forget about that she was pissed at me. Yes, I definitely deserved a beer. 

“Well done, Mac,” I totally forgot about Desi still being in the room, standing a couple of feet away. My smile was gone immediately. “What are you going to do now? Stop their dates every time with a beer invitation?” Sometimes I really hated how well she could read me. I could have argued with her, saying she got it all wrong but I would have ended up in a bigger hole eventually. 

“Desi, I am…”

“I swear to God, if you say one more time you are sorry, I’m going to punch you until you are unconscious,” she said, her eyes already showing she was done with me. Thinking back to my behaviour in the last 72 hours, she had every right to be mad. “I really thought this time it would work.”

“Wait, before you…” I tried to stop here because I knew where this was going I could screw up everything so bad. 

“No, Mac, no. This time I am going to talk, I don’t need your big speeches,” she interrupted me and took a deep breath. So this was it. “After Codex I was thinking a lot about why you didn’t trust me, why you felt like you couldn’t confide me into your plans. I realized I didn’t really talk to you before, at least no like the others. You guys shared everything with each other in the last couple of years, been there for each other, knew how to support one another. During the pandemic I had to realise I was just as much at fault as you, but then you got stuck with Riley and I knew that was it. But you told me nothing was going on and I so wanted to believe you because I wanted another chance, to try it in a different way. So I chose to believe you and after our date when we came went back to your house I told you all about my childhood. I didn’t want our relationship to be only about always fighting and making up. So I did the hardest thing I ever had to and started opening up. You got to know the sad story of Desiree the black sheep of the family, the girl who was born into a perfect family and growing up proving to be a failure in their eyes. And you were so understanding, I thought yes this might be it. So I told you about my fears, about how it was to grow in the shadow of a perfect brother who was just everything my parents dreamed about. And again, you didn’t look at me with pity and I felt I finally did it, finally got through to you. We were fighting anymore, we spoke went on missions. It took me a couple of months to realize what you were actually doing: just like me you chose a new approach to make this whole thing work. You didn’t dare to fight with me anymore, fearing we would break up again, right?”

She didn’t really need me to answer, I could see she knew all the answers by now. Knowing how much she didn’t talk about herself and her life, it really made me feel closer to her when she opened up. I felt sorry for her, knowing how she grew up without his family supporting her, giving her the love she deserved. But it made her as strong as she was today and no one could deny what an incredible person she was. However, seeing her like this, and knowing for a fact how much words weren’t her thing, she rather communicated with actions… I knew these thoughts had been on her mind for so long she was done.

“I thought so. You see, I never wanted any of this, I just wanted to be with you, to feel I belonged to someone. But every time you agreed to something without saying a word I got more angry because I knew this wasn’t you. So picked up a fight about everything I just could and yet no reaction. Until Alex showed up… I am not going to blame you for this, Mac, I know you only tried the same thing as I did: change. But tell me, is it worth it? To change so much you are no longer yourself? We shouldn’t have to. So these last 3 days reminded me of one thing: You cannot fix something that was never whole in the first place, Mac. And this,” pointing at the two of us, “this was never gonna work. The way how you acted since Alex got here, it just gave me the last push to admit it.”

“But Dez, I still love you…” I couldn’t see her stand in front of me broken, her eyes swelling with tears. Even if she was right, and I knew she was, she had to know I loved her.

“I know you do, Mac, and that’s the reason I kept lying to myself it might work” she said with resignation in her voice. “But I have spent enough time of my life living in the shadow of someone else… I can't anymore. I believe that you love me but you were never  _ in love with me _ . I don't really know much about this, that’s why I could never express it either, but what I do know is that if someone’s love isn't undividedly mine, I should never settle for it. Not even for you.”

It was over. Just like that. Months, hell, years of trying to build us up, and it was all gone in minutes. Desi took one deep breath, her whole figure relaxing as if she was holding on to a heavy weight for decades now and she finally found release. She walked past me, gave me one last kiss on my cheek and then went to the door, while I couldn’t even turn around, let alone utter a word. What was wrong with me? I kept breaking everyone around me lately and if I didn’t stop, I might have just ended up alone for the rest of my life. As if she was reading my mind, Desi said one more thing before leaving.

“Even if it pains me to say this, I am still your friend, Mac. I have been through a lot and you helped more than you could imagine. So as a friend let me return the favour: there is something you could still fix, but you gotta stop being an idiot because she is not going to wait for you forever. She is going to settle for less and you will spend the rest of your life torn about it. And you know how much I’d hate to see you becoming a crazy scientist building a time traveling device to go back and get the girl.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at this picture which sounded way too accurate. I would have done it, but time travelling was too complex to mess with. She smiled at me one eyebrow lifted waiting for my sign of understanding. I nodded showing I got the message. Right when she could have left Bozer showed up running.

“We got problems, guys,” he said trying to catch his breath. My mind started playing at least one hundred scenarios, and all of them had Riles in it, somehow showing that my thoughts were now free to be wandering all around her. “Carlyle is gone. Someone helped escape and they only left this.”

Bozer gave the note to Desi first, who handed it to me. It wasn’t long, but it said all that was needed. 

_ “Our mutual friend sends his regards, hoping to see you soon again, Boy Scout.” _


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't rest until I finish this story, so I'll be posting as often as possible. A promised this is a Riley POV chapter, giving the attention to Alex he deserves. Poor guy, he never really had a chance and I feel sorry for him...  
> Anyways, I think I might have sleep deprevation because the last few chapters, and I am afrad the next one too is very emotional. That's it I am an emotional idiot...  
> I still can't believe the incredible love and support I am getting from all of you guys, seriously, I cannot express how much I love you.  
> Enjoy this chapter let me know what you thought, if you had a favourite line etc. here or on Twitter (@whatsabex)  
> Love ya xx
> 
> PS. This is a milesstone in the story the last 5 are gonna be all over the place: action packed, badass, dark, passionate (probably will put out a smut warning), flirty, happy, etc. be prepared!

**Chapter 5**

**Riley**

“Well that was interesting,” Alex said.

“Yeah, yeah, it was interesting” I agreed but I wasn't really sure. Mac’s behaviour was confusing to say the least. Distant at first, then angry, then he was mad and now wanted to be friends again. I knew something was up with him. I have never seen him behave like that before. But actually I have. Unlike others I still remembered when his job was to pretend that he was Murdoc. 

I still remembered how scary it was to look at him, how he managed to become something that was so unnatural for him. I could say a couple of things about MacGyver: he was sometimes very stupid which is funny considering that he was a genius but he was also pretty messy when it came to relationships, to family and feelings. The truth is he had the biggest heart of anyone I have ever met in my life. He always cared about others and who could have ever asked for more in a friend. A friend because that's what we were except I didn't even know anymore. We haven't talked for almost months. He was distant even consumed up about his relationship with Desi and now finally when we finally had something going on by Alex showing up and I had a chance to prove myself showing I could do better than just hide behind a screen. He suddenly switched to this craziness. I still remembered the first couple of missions after Jack left. Sometimes it just felt like Jack was behind my back, protecting me just doing his fatherly stuff. But with Mac it was something different, it wasn't fatherly overprotection it was something new that I have never seen from him. The man who trusted me, assured me I was capable of doing this... he was gone and in his place there was this anger and this... I couldn't really find another word for it but possessiveness in him. 

“Hey Riley?” It seemed like I didn't pay too much attention to Alex and he finally realised it. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah I'm absolutely fine,” I lied. “Just there are couple of things on my mind right now.”

“Can I help with any of them?'' he asked. Something must have been really wrong with me because here I was finally on the edge of something new in my life with someone on my side who seemed to be the perfect guy for me. He was kind, caring, strong, funny and he paid attention which I really didn't get too much of lately. Falling for Alex would have been the easiest task ever. Yet, here I was wondering why I couldn't stop thinking about Mac. Why couldn't he stop behaving like an idiot? Why couldn't he just just let me go? Why couldn't he just leave my thoughts?

And then of course that moment in the hotel. It wasn't really more than a second, maybe two it just felt like an eternity but just couldn’t stop thinking about it. The way he leaned in, it wasn't something I could have ever dreamed about because I didn't really have any words for it. Alex kept on walking in the parking lot and I was wishing he would have stopped talking because I tried to make some sort of an order in my head. Truth is I didn’t hear anything he was saying. I just looked at him thinking how it felt to be with him in the ring and then about the kiss with him before I went to showers. It was great, it was something thrilling but an almost kiss with Mac... it wasn't just a thrill, it wasn't just an electric feeling on my skin it was all over me. Alex lit my whole body on fire but Mac lit my soul, my mind, my whole life on a fire and I was happy to burn. Whatever happened in the hotel was like a dream, something I couldn't really comprehend and for a moment I was sure he felt the same way. We didn't even breathe. It felt like we didn't need any of the things that we needed when we were out of that special place. People need oxygen, sun, food but then and there all we needed was each other and if it wasn't interrupted by someone I was pretty sure I would have lost my mind. But now that I thought about it the rational part of my mind knew that would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I already shared way too much with Mac: he already knew that he broke my heart; that he was in my mind pretty much all the time. I was already exposed to him even though I didn't really know how I felt anymore.

“Do you want to talk about it?” and here I was again letting Mac back into my head while Alex was looking at me, trying to get closer to me. If I really wanted to move on, if I really wanted to have a life which is not just about wondering about what ifs then I really needed to give this a real shot. And who else could have been more perfect than Alex Hastings.

“You know what, Alex?” I turned to him before he could have gotten into his car. He looked at me curiously waiting for what I was about to say. “Let's forget about the drinks, we're going next time to Mac’s, let's have that dinner!”

“As much as I really want to go on a date with you, Riley Davis,” he said andtook a couple of steps back to me until he was just standing in front of me. “I really think this could be good. I mean since I got here Mac was about to kill me or at least strangle me with his eyes as far as I remember 7 times now. We need to focus on making this thing work even if it's just going to be a couple of missions together and most of them will be just you and me. We have to make this work really. I feel we have to go today and show him that I am not the bad guy here. This is his peace offering to me and now I have to take it otherwise what's the point?” He was so close to me now we were sharing the same breath, looked me deep in the eye as if he was waiting for a permission and when I smiled he finally kissed me. It wasn't one of those passionate ones that we shared in the hotel or that was had after the fight in the ring.

This kiss wasn't born out of passion but out of comfort it was all about caring. It might have been only a couple of weeks since we met but I could feel that he was a person anyone could have fallen in love with. Anyone, and that included me. But this whispering voice returned saying I could never really be all his. No matter how hard I tried to convince myself that everything that happened with me was just a crush just because of the near death situation that we were in with Mac, due to the adrenaline. But we finally seemed to be speaking to each other about more than just missions. Now that he told me his feelings how he didn't want me to get hurt I could feel that even if I moved on with Alex or anyone else, just one step was enough from him, telling me once that he needed me and I was willing to throw away everything I had just to help him like I did before... never thinking about the risks, never thinking about how much I could get hurt, just about him. It was such a cruel thing to realise that I was in love with Angus MacGyver while I was kissing Alex Hastings. Life had a very certain sense of humour and I've learnt it first-hand.

“You're right,” I told Alex when I finally moved away. “He took a step, we have to do the same.”

“Hey guys” Jason, one of our technicians just hurried into the parking lot. I waved at him kindly and Alex nodded. “It's so good you're still here! Did you get the news yet?” I looked at him curiously.

“What news?” I asked and I had this very bad feeling in my stomach.  _ Please please don't say it _

“The guy you brought in, Carlyle escaped.”

“Are you joking me?” Alex asked. “How is that even possible?”

“I don't know, man, I just heard it. Everybody's talking about it. I mean how did they lose someone? The FBI seems to be pretty lame…”

“Yeah, don't tell me,” I was very annoyed by the situation but we had nothing else to do so we turned back to the building. At the war room where Matty and Taylor already got the team together you could have cut through the tension with a scissor. It seemed Mac and Desi didn't even leave the room.

“We just heard... what happened?” I asked.

“Well,” Matty started apparently not very happy about our situation. “We have asked a couple of questions from Carlyle but he didn't seem to be very cooperative so considering that our job was to get him and get proof about his deals, we let him go and let the FBI try to find out who this mutual friend of ours could be on their own. We handed him over to the FBI and 15 minutes later they called us saying he's gone.”

“I don't get it! How can they lose someone?” Bozer asked. The last couple of days we didn’t talk too much and seemed to be just fine yet I needed to remind myself to ask later about the Leanna situation. “I mean we could get this guy out of France flying back here and they couldn't even take him until the next building? That is a new low for the FBI…”

“They are certainly losing their touch,” Taylor added. “But the point is that they are looking for him again so for now we are trying to figure out who this mutual friend of yours could be. Any ideas?”

“Seriously? the note that he left is pretty clear,” Max said and I looked at him.

“What note?” I asked. Without looking at me, he handed over a slip of paper. After reading it I looked back at them with concern all over my face. “Of course it's him but how would they be friends? I don't understand that.”

“Even if it is Murdoc,” Matty said. “We can be pretty sure that they are not friends. A tiny drug dealer like Carlyle could be connected to someone like him? I feel like there is more to this story but now all we can do is try to check for connections. We’ll take a look at Carlisle colleagues, people who worked with anything if we find something in his past that could suggest that he was in connection with Murdoc.”

“I could call one of my friends at the CIA to look at his file if that helps,” Alex offered and Matty nodded.

“That would be great thank you! In the meantime you can't really do anything so as I said go home have some rest if anything changes we’ll call you mediately.”

This time we left a room together all five of us both Desi and Mac seemed to be thinking hard about something.

“So are we still doing the beer drinking thing?” Alex tried to ease a little bit of the tension. Mac looked up first looking at me then Alex then back at me. 

“Yeah, yeah sure, let’s go to my place right now. I have some beers in the fridge.”

“Great see you there.” Alex walked away after giving me a wink, Desi following him soon after.

I looked at Mac’s face after we stayed alone. He didn't seem angry anymore even though Alex was brave enough to show his affection in front of him. Instead of saying anything he just forced a smile on his face and left. Just like that.

🖇🖇🖇

“Hastings, let’s hear your story” Mac broke the silence after 20 minutes of just sitting around the fire and staring at it. Let’s say this wasn’t the best topic he could have brought up.

“Mac, I don’t think…”

“It’s okay, Riley,” Alex said and turned to Mac who was still paying close attention to him. “I guess it’s just fair to tell my story considering I have read all about yours…”

“Trust comes the hard way, they say” I really wanted to punch him in the face, but there was nothing to be done. Alex took a deep breath before he started talking, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy tale.

“I'm actually from Chicago. We, me and my sister, didn't grow up in a very safe neighborhood to be honest. I still remember a lot of times how my lunch money was stolen away. You know I wasn’t always this big,” and he laughed trying to make it seem like a funny story even though his eyes were already full of sadness. “Katie and I were very close to each other. It was like we were twins or something, especially after our parents died in a car crash and our aunt took us in. We did everything together afterwards. One day she came to me telling that she will be a cop. I asked her why, she said that she was protecting one of the kids to be beaten up by the big Darren guys. I was in shock asking how the hell did she do it… You know what she did? She told them that they could get at least 5 years because this was a class one felony! She didn't even know what felony meant at that time because she was 8. But they believed her and she was just so proud and I was proud of her, too. On the contrary, I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself. I didn't really have dreams or goals in life. She was my opposite, she was really ambitious and she knew what she wanted. She was strong strict but she also had the biggest heart that you could ever ask for. I knew once she achieved becoming a cop then she could really make a difference so I supported her. After high school I still didn't know what I wanted to do so I decided to go and enlist…”

“Where?” Mac asked. It was the first time since they met he actually seemed to show compassion as if you finally started to believe that Alex was not the bad guy, he was just a stranger and it was up to us to change that by letting him in.

“5 years in Iraq,” I could see a little shiver run through Alex. “If I've learnt anything from war and all I've seen there is that life is a very fragile thing.We can’t wait around for the right moment to do something because there is no such thing. There are only moments and you can never know how much you have left of those. So when I came back I decided to stay. I needed to build a family, to start doing something with my life and without any other idea I joined the Academy and became a police officer just like Katie. Soon enough we were partners going on petrols. Truth is most of the time I didn't even have to do anything as she was just going all over the place taking down anyone single handedly. Man, I couldn't have been more proud of her when the CIA reached out. It was a very big step and even if it meant that I couldn't see her everyday I'll also know it meant that she could go out and do something really big. Yes, we were sweeping the streets clean from some really shitty bastards and we were doing a good job at it but she was meant for something so much bigger so when she asked I supported her. Sometimes I wish I went with her or stopped her but I was engaged at that time and I didn't even think how badly these things can go,” here he stopped for a minute as if he was deep in his memories, reliving them. My heart was already aching for him, knowing what the past tense might have meant…

“After 2 months the CIA I came to me telling that Katie was in deep cover in a gang in Seattle. She was doing great but it was coming to an end soon so she needed to be taken out of and they didn't hear from her for a while so I went in. Something changed in her. I could see it and in a couple of weeks I could ask the boss Laurent to let me do one of the shipments. I was paired up with Katie or as they knew her Stella, she told me that she had to shoot a little boy in the leg for not bringing enough on the table. That's how she proved that she belonged to them. She had to watch him bleed just to make her cover work. She was broken inside. I knew it but she still did it because she knew that if we didn't stop these guys a lot of other kids would have died… We were about to learn a lesson the hard way: we can't always save everyone.”

I looked at Mac and thought about all the things that Codex was doing. Yes, we can't save everyone but it doesn't justify hurting the others. I mean just because we can’t always save everyone did that mean that we had the right to choose who becomes a casualty and who is saved. In the corner of my mind a thought slipped out of place: if we could do things like that if we really were willing to use kids to insure our cover, was it really that bad to get rid of half of us to save the rest? No matter how hard I have tried to become less emotional about the cruelty we were facing seeing how this whole chaos broke us... it still made me want to cry. I couldn't help it.

“Every time I saw Katie she just seemed more and the more distant like she was being tortured by the weight on her shoulders. I swore never to let her do anything like this again. Yes, we need people saving us but I wasn't going to sacrifice my only sister in the process! You can call me selfish but it was just way too high of a price to give, the only person I love with all of my heart just to save a bunch of people who might end up dead anyways. So we agreed after the mission is over we both go home, back to Chicago she'll rejoin the CPD. I get married, she will be the godmother of my first beautiful child and will live happily ever after.”

Even if he didn't finish the story even if it's stopped right here, I would have known how the story ended just by looking at his face. The look in his eyes the way he was gripping his own hair, swallowing hard I knew what happened without even him telling me.

“When the shipment arrived and the CIA was closing up Laurent panicked he looked around the few people that were there. I was sitting in a car with some CIA agents waiting for the signal to move in, watching from afar as he pointed his gun at different people around him. There are only 4 of them there. He shouted  _ traitors _ and shot the first person. I didn't care about anyone saying anything, I didn't care about orders, I just jumped out of the car, started running towards them when the second person was down. By the time I got to them Laurent already grabbed my sister, put a gun to her head and looked at me.

_ Of course it was all you I should have known, _ he said,  _ the we-are-too-good-to-do-this look on your face… of course it was you all along! Tell me was it worth it? _ he asked my sister.

_ Anything to get rid of you, you filth _ my sister answered” Alex was now shaking, all of this was taking him back to a dark place from where most of us barely get out. 

“You,” he continued gathering up all of his strength. “You tell me was it worth it? At that time I didn't care about this question. All I could do was to keep my eyes on Katie. she was going to get out of there but my hands were shaking like my body already knew it was going to happen. And her eyes… her brave eyes that I've never once in my life seen showing fear but now she was scared. Somewhere in the background I heard people moving closer, someone shouting to stand down but my gun was already in my hand and all I could do was stand there frozen helplessly listening to Katie as she whispered  _ I love you big brother…” _

Deep silence filled the moment as he took one more breath.

“He shot her in the head in front of me, right before I took my own gun and shot him 5 times. I lost my partner, my best friend, my sister, the only happiness that I could always count on. After we took Laurent down, a couple of his friends from the lookout car started shooting at us. I got one in my arm. I woke up in the hospital 3 days later. They were worried if I could ever use my left arm again. They never really thought that the real pain that I was feeling was impossible to heal. In the next couple of months I was trying to get better, went back to Chicago but nothing was the same anymore. People looked at me waiting for the moment when I snapped. I didn't go back to CPD, I didn't go back to the CIA, I was doing nothing with my life. And then I got this offer and I started to think about what Katie might have said if she saw me now, wasting my life wallowing in my own misery. I know for a fact she’d punched me in the face for behaving like this.” He finished his story and none of us knew how to act after it. Then he looked at Mac. “So when you asked why I am here, what am I doing here at all… I'm trying to honour her memory and try to do something with the chance that I got because it could have been easily me if it was a turned situation and she was the one who got out of there and I was the one bleeding out in the dirt. I would have wanted her to move on, find a new reason, something to live for. It took me a very long time to reach this point and I've lost a lot of things after her death and I'm not willing to lose anything more so I'm telling you again: I'm here to help and I'm here because I need help. I've heard a lot of stories about what happened to you guys. you've been through a lot of losses: friends, family gone, too. You don't have to like me but you should know I don't have any reason to hurt you, any of you,” he look at me now sincere and honest. I instantly reached for his hand making sure he knew what he just told us was the hardest step. I looked at Mac waiting for his response, hoping that this time the Old Mac, the want I could have done anything for, that Mac was going to respond.

“I'm truly sorry for your loss, Alex,” he said. “And I'm sorry for how I behaved earlier. it's just.. we had a lot of bad things happening to us” his eyes wandered to Desi a conversation lingering between them. Something that we could not understand but it must have been important. Then Mac looked back at me. “We are a family here and I just want to make sure that we don't suffer the same thing that you did because if I lost any of these people I wouldn't be able to move on ever again…”

He was talking to Alex but his eyes were locked with mine as if he was trying to tell me something: a big secret that he couldn't tell me earlier. I wished I knew what he meant. But what I knew surely was that he helped Alex. I could finally feel some relief because this Mac... it was him I could see in eyes that finally understanding struck him: we all lost so much already, we had to stick together every possible way we could. We had a long minute of silence appreciating the shift and this new chapter that was about a new start until all of our phones started buzzing. We didn't even have to check to know it was from Matty.

“Great finally some action! This was getting rather boring here,” Alex joked and we all gave him an encouraging smile. We were going to be okay but first we had to catch Carlyleand hopefully without getting shot in the process by our very good friend Murdoc.

🖇🖇🖇

“Alright Matty, tell us what you got” Mac said after taking his seat in the war room.

“So it seems like the FBI wasn't really paying much attention to the person they sent here to get the guy because he should be long dead,” sheput the picture of the fake FBI agent who took Carlisle on the screen. “This is Travis Jacobson according to what Alex’s friend got for us Travis and Carlyle went to the same police academy but not much before their final exam they had been kicked out for whatever reason. Thanks to his dad his slate was wiped clean so we don't have any information about what they did but they never ended up in the police afterwards. Now according to the data Travis had a car accident a couple of years ago and his body was not found in the lake where he ended up in. But the face scanner had a match so this is definitely Jacobson.”

“Wait so this isn't about Murdoc then?” Mac asked, then looked at the picture again and said. “He looks so familiar.”

“That's because we have already met him,” the lost piece of puzzle just clicked into its place in my mind. “When we were at Codex and you went to meet Leland and I was taken to the Tech Centre! He's the guy who took me there, the one who knew I was Artemis.”

“Yes, that's him,” he realised, too.

“So we are up against Codex again?” Desi stepped closer to us, her eyebrows already in the sky. I could tell that she was still very pissed about the whole Codex thing and she really wanted to be over with it.

“Definitely an interesting turn of events,” Matty said.

“Well not so much,” Taylor finally said a word. He’s been awfully quiet lately which was never a good sign when it came to him. “It was just a matter of time before two psychos like Leland and Murdoc teamed up…”

“And don't forget about Andrews,” Mac added another psychopath into the equation.

“I am so done,” I said out loud. My brain was hurting and I already knew this was not going to end well. We have been against Murdoc for years and now Codex again. “Russ, you said that Codex is probably done by now because we have all of their information.”

“What I said is that now we have something that Leland wants. But I never said that we won” Russ corrected me. “It was just a delay for Leland to find a new way to get back to us which means that we have to focus now on one thing: what does Carlyle have for Codex and what could possibly be so important for Leland in him to risk one of his man who was supposed to be dead on paper for years now to be seen.”

“Well he definitely seemed like an idiot so Leland does not want him for his intellectual qualities,” Alex commented. “And how much can he possibly get for his bar and the drug? Doesn’t seem to be something stable for their finances.”

“Okay, so Carlyle is a deadend. We can't figure out what Leland wants from him,” I said somehow all of my thoughts were now focused on this. I had to finish this mission. I didn't understand why I was so obsessed with this mission to be over but I really wanted to finish it and catch Carlyle. Maybe it was because this was the first time I was out as a real agent and not someone who is good with tech. Or maybe because I knew when this was over I could talk to Matty and that team as it was, was going to be over. I needed that little peace. “There has to be something here that we are not seeing! Matty do we have any surveillance cameras of the area from where he was taken?”

Matty started playing the video of a tunnel with the car which was supposed to transport Carlyle from our building to the FBI meeting point. The car went into the tunnel and at the other end it ran right into a tree. Both the driver and the passenger were gone but nobody walked out or no other car was seen entering.

“Something is missing here,” I said more and more frustrated with every moment, like it was a test that I was about to fail. “Is there any way out of the tunnel accept for the two ends?”

“No other exits.”

“Okay, is there any sign of new doors that had been carved, or cut on the sidewalls? Was there any car waiting in the tunnel taking them out?” The answers were no again.

“This is getting ridiculous, people don't just vanish,” I was almost yelling at this point. Alex walked to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey it's okay, relax!” I knew he only wanted to help me but anytime I was told me to relax somehow I just got more upset. Without actually saying a word to Alex I grabbed my backpack.

“You know what? The best that we can do right now is go back to the scene. Let's see if we can find something that could lead somewhere.”

“The FBI already looked around the place,” Desi said, seemingly not really interested in finding Carlyle. It's been a couple of days that we spent with this idiot running around us, naturally all of us were getting more and more frustrated. 

“Considering how hell of a job the FBI did, forgive me for not trusting their ability to find Carlyle again,” I said, just a little bit of annoyance in my voice. 

“That's the best we have right now,” Mac agreed and nodded to me. 

5 minutes later we were already on the road trying to catch this guy for the third time in three days now.

🖇🖇🖇

“Alright! we have no idea what happened here,” Mac said when we got to the scene. “And this is a pretty long tunnel and it's getting dark so the best we can do is team up and start from two directions.”

That was probably the most logical idea in this scenario. The truth be told I wasn't very eager to talk to anyone. Desi and I had been on speaking terms but still didn't speak too much to each other and that was not about to change now that my friendship with Mac became a lot more complicated. On the other hand there was Alex. I really, really liked him so far and talking to him usually worked wonders for me but I had this mixed feeling that I was trying to move on from something that might never end truly. And that something was Mac. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to go into that tunnel alone with him because we both knew that we had a lot to talk about and the last two times we ended up hurting each other very badly. He was overprotective, I told him to leave me alone; he tried to show me how much he cared about me and I told him that he was hurting me. The last 3 days have been an emotional rollercoaster for both of us and somehow I felt like if we had one more conversation about what was happening between us this rollercoaster would have ended up crashing into a wall.

“Great idea! Alex and I are going to go to the north end you can start here, guys” How badly I wanted to avoid this situation but it seemed Desi was thinking the exact same opposite. Considering how fast she got into the car and how eagerly she chose Alex over Mac or me showed that something was definitely happening between her and a Mac and I wasn't really ready to hear about any of that. But before I could have said anything they were already on the road and I left alone with Mac and words hanging all around us which I knew were just a matter of time to be said out loud.

In the next 5 minutes none of us said anything which was a good start. I thought yes, maybe maybe it's not going to be so hard, maybe we can actually start behaving as professionals and we can leave behind all the nonsense that's been happening. Well, I was wishing upon a star too soon because Mac started talking almost right away.

“Riley…” he started but I stopped him mid sentence.

“So the side walls seem to be very nasty which means that it would have taken them a very long time to make an escape route out of it. So how do you actually escape from something that is this massive?” I asked. Mac took a breath trying to find his voice again to get started but I was prepared to stop him all over.

“Hold on a second!” Mac stopped and looked at me curiously. “Lamps,” and I pointed up to the ceiling of the tunnel. “Could they be used as an exit? I mean do they have any kind of space behind them?” I asked and Mac looked at me with his eyebrows already wrinkled together.

“Yeah it's actually possible. I mean that I can know for sure but that should be no issue to make any tunnel behind them if the electricity is switched off and there is a maintenance panel. You think that they have gone through one of them?”

“Well almost every second or third one of them is not working so no it's not that difficult to imagine that one of them is used as an exit… we should look for one of them that seems to be out of order, find any sign of them being used as a trapdoor kind of thing, right? Then we could know where it leads and find Carlyle.”

I was so excited because finally something was happening. Yet Mac was staring at me without blinking. I forgot about everything that happened in the last three days: about how he made me feel lately, how I was mad at him, upset about him, worried about him but still somehow happy about seeing him, excited to be near him. All of these things turned into a lethal mixture that was driving me crazy. However for that slight moment everything was so clear. He looked at me with pride in his eyes as if he was trying to tell me that this is what he wanted for me all along. Maybe it was longer than one second because Mac moved closer. Before we could have made a mistake again to confuse both of our feelings I retreated one step backwards.

“We should tell the others to pay attention to the lamps…”

“Riley, wait…” he grabbed my arm before I could have made one more step. “We have to talk.”

“No, Mac, I think we have talked enough and the truth is I really don’t know what else could be said. Right now I just want to find this guy and move on.”

“Move on? From what exactly?” he asked a little bit of hurt in his voice.

“All of this, Mac! Don't you see this thing is driving both of us insane? Yes, I am glad that you finally warmed up a little bit to Alex but that doesn't change anything of what I said before.” I tried to move away from him but he was keeping me firmly close to him, his eyes intensely looking at me as if he was trying to find some sort of secret that I was hiding or trying to read my mind what I really felt or thought. Strangely, even I didn't know what I was feeling or thinking lately. Everything was a mess and I needed one step back and a little bit of clarity to finally be able to start understanding what was happening. “I'm still going to talk to Matty. What happened in the last couple of days just proved that we cannot work together anymore, we have changed too much. I want different things but for you they are still perfectly fine. These changes should work and if you need me, I will be here but just as colleagues. I need this thing on my own, I have to find the best I can be…”

“But you already are! Riley, you are the most amazing woman I have met in my life, you are smart, caring, loyal, selfless you pay attention to everything you come up with ideas that I don't even think about! You are everything that anyone could ever ask for.” The desperation in his voice proved that all of these words just burst out of him. He wasn't preparing to say this and I wasn't prepared to hear any of it. I wasn't even sure what they meant.

“Mac it's just it's too much for me..”

“Hey listen to me! Whatever happens, you and me, we always get through, we can do anything as long as we do it together.” He looked deep in my eyes, his hands found their way to my face, wiping off some tears that treacherously started appearing.

Who was I actually lying to? I wasn't confused. All I needed was one moment of silence to close my eyes and don't think of anything and the first thought that ever came to my mind was him. Whenever I woke up in the morning it was his face right in front of me, hearing his voice, thinking of what he was doing. Trying to convince myself of what I felt for him was just a crush was the biggest lie ever made. But because no lie can last forever it was just a matter of time until I finally admitted it to myself: I was madly in love with him. Moving on to anything else but being with him, moving on to anyone else but him was like never seeing the sun again but settling for candle light: it would keep me warm on the outside but never on the inside. I needed him as one needs to breathe

“Stay with me,” his voice was pleading like he was fighting for his own life, like I was taking something away from him that he was not able to live without.  _ Could it be true, could he really feel like that? _

“I couldn't leave you even if my heart stopped beating,” the words were out of my mouth before I could have even thought about anything else. 

A sigh of relief left both of us filling up the silence, embracing everything around us. But this peaceful bubble that we have been in has been way too fragile to last too long.

“Did you hear that?” I asked. Somewhere not even so far but because of the echoes I couldn't tell for sure, there was a weird, unsettling whistle.

“Is it…?” but before I could have finished my question something pushed me to the ground. A sudden pain flowering in my shoulder not much above my heart the world around me muted, my vision narrowed down. All I could see was Mac's face. I didn't hear him but I could see tears filling up his eyes. His mouth was moving as if he was asking me: Riley, can you hear me? I wanted to say yes I wanted to tell him that I am not going anywhere unless he asks me to, but then he disappeared. For a brief second I was alone, full silence nothing happened. Then my vision started expanding again, my hearing switched on. I moved my head just a little bit to the right to see Mac lying next to me unconscious, helpless crying ran through my body. I turned my head back to see my other side.

“It's always a pleasure meeting you miss Davis,” it was Murdoc kneeling next to me ,looking at me with a happy smile on his face. “Don't worry, no one's going anywhere. We all are going to stay together, isn’t it great?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go guys, one of the chapters I was very looking forward to writing. It wasinspired by the "linked in an unexpected way" teaser we got and I thought, hell yeah let's link Riley and Mac. There is not much happening in this chapter, no action, but I still feel very attached to it. I don't even know what is left to say. Next chapter will still be Mac POV because it will be hell of a fire but I am thinking maybe a split POV could make it better... let me know after reading the chapter if I should do both Riles andMac with the next one  
> Again, I thank you all for the love you are giving me, it really helps me go on! Consider this a New Year's Eve present, but honestly I don't know how much joy you can get of it, hahaha.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy it, let me know what you thought here or on Twitter (@whatsabex)  
> Love you all xx

**Chapter 6**

**Mac**

It felt like a fog was weighing on me. It was thick, I could hardly breathe. The best I could do was try to go forward with my thoughts. What happened, what was the last thing I remembered for a second, even my own name was like a strange information. With a thunderstorm myl whole word was cracked again, some sort of a light was coming through the shadows of my eyelids.

And lightning just struck. The only thought that could come up in my mind was Riley. It was her, the only thing that I could think about. I didn't even want to know who I was, at that moment where I was or what happened. A picture suddenly pulled up my mind again. Riley, being shot, her blood all over her face and her shoulder.No, no, that couldn't have happened.

One second she was in front of me.

Just one arm length away from me. I was about to hug her. I felt, whatever was happening between us at that moment was simply it. No need for words or labels. There was no need for hiding any more secrets, pain, suffering. It was just her and me.

And then, everything went sideways. In the corner of my mind I knew that it wasn't just a coincidence. Murdoc was behind all of this, we walked into a trap. It was all just a setup. He knew we would go and try to find Carlyle like he knew that we are going to be so focused on trying to find this guy So much that we wouldn't even think that this is a trap. But it was. And here we were.

But where were we? Panic started running through my veins, wondering what happened to her, if she was still...  _ No, no, no, I'm not even thinking about it, _ I told myself. That was impossible. I couldn't lose her when I was just about to have her. We couldn't... I couldn't let the story end without even starting it.

_ Come on MacGyver. Try to find something, anything.  _ But the fog around me couldn't be lifted at all. It just kept hugging me so tightly that it was impossible to feel anything else but it's this drowning feeling. It took everything out of my whole body.  _ I have to do something, anything _ .

It took all of my strength to open up my eyes. I had to find her, I had to do something. For a split second I could actually move my arms. But it wasn't much, maybe even less than a second.

It wasn’t much but I saw something was around me. But again it was lost, just as I was about to grasp it. I couldn't even comprehend the thought of not knowing what happened to her. I needed Riley as much as I needed to breathe.

_ Come on Mac. You can do this. _

Fighting against this impossible pain that was going through my body I took a deep breath and then another. I could do this.

“Oh look at the Sleeping Blondie! He is awake,” I heard someone. It didn't take me too long to realise that it was Murdoc's voice. There were not too many people who could make me feel like I wanted to kill someone but every time I heard his voice the urge woke up. This man was just chaos walking on two feet. “Oh, don't be shy, big boy. Come on, wakey wake up, join us!”

All my thoughts were praying now that this  _ us _ meant him and Riley. I didn't care about him. It was only about Riley. I had to know if she was still okay if she was still alive.

“Any encouraging words to him, Miss Davis?” That was all I needed to muster up a little bit of my strength to open my eyes. My vision was very blurry and the room was badly lit. My hands were tied to the chair I was sitting in. I could feel something in my arms. But instead of looking around trying to figure out a way to get out of the situation like I always did, or just to see where the hell we were actually, I was trying to find Riley with my eyes. Luckily, she was sitting right in front of me, the same way as I was tied to a chair. She was awake too, but her eyes were empty, as if she wasn't even there. And then again, for a split second I forgot about what happened, I was just focusing on her. It took me a while to remind myself she was shot, she was bleeding out in my arms. I panicked. I tried to get a closer look at her, tried to clear my vision to know at least a little of how she was if, she was still in danger.

“Please, Riley, look at me,” her eyelids barely moved but a sigh left her mouth. She heard me. She was still conscious. That was good. “Hey. Hey. It's okay. You are going to be fine.” I didn't even know which one of us I actually wanted to convince myself or her. But I kept going with this lie. “Everything is going to be just fine. You and me. Remember?” somehow, even my own voice sounded shaky and alien. I wasn't even talking... like I was just a puppet, and someone else was doing the talking actually.

“Don't worry, Boy Scout. I took care of my new friend here. She is just going to be fine. Believe me I had my fair experience with bullet wounds, not one of those was from your old friend, Jack, if I remember correctly,” said Murdoch with a murderous smile on his face. As if I had to thank him for saving the girl, after she was shot by him. Every bone in my body wanted to kill him so badly at that moment. 

But still, my focus remained on her. Surprisingly the bandage in her shoulder seemed neatly done. I did not know if she had the internal bleeding or anything else. But she was bandaged up, she wasn't bleeding anymore as I could see, which was a good sign.But still, until I made sure that she was out of this place in a hospital where they could actually save her, I could not rest. But how was I supposed to save us? The truth is, even my thoughts were just running around the place like too many things were happening at the same time.

I tried to take a better look at the place again. Yes, it was definitely a warehouse. It was dark, wet, way too empty, possibly so far away from any city, nobody would ever look for us here. And again, my vision wandered back to Riley. She was fighting so hard to stay awake, I could see it. Just now I have realised that there was something attached to her arm, an infusion kind of thing. What the hell was Murdoc giving to her? I looked at my own arm, and it had the same thing going on. We were both given something, some sort of a drug to make us weak, I guessed. And now that my vision cleared out I finally realised I wasn't just simply.

“What is going on here?” I asked out loud. Even if I was just thinking about it somehow my mouth started forming the words.

“This is my new favourite game, Boy Scout,” he said,”this is going to be very much fun.”

The way he was enthusiastic about us being tied up, and probably soon enough being tortured was just the craziest thing I have ever seen in my life.Sometimes I still forgot how much of a psychopath he was.

“Listen, I don't care what you want to do, I don't care who sent you here, why you are here. You can kill me if you want. But let her go!”

“No,” suddenly Riley was conscious again, just enough strength in her voice to make me hear how much pain she was in.

“Riley… let her go, Murdoc, she needs a doctor,” I said. Murdoc sat down just right next to us, as if he was watching a film.

“Aw, aren't you two just the cutest? Trying to save each other all the time? I always knew that you would make a very lovely couple,” he mocked us. Trying not to give him more to torture us than he already had, I didn't even look at him.

“I said, let her go, Murdoc!”

“No, I'm afraid this is not gonna happen, MacGyver. You see, I am not here to kill any of you. So you can stop saving each other,” he said, then stepped right in front of me going down into a squat, to have our eyes on the same level. He wanted me to know something so badly. I could see it in his eyes, and the murderous smile. Yes, he was planning something bigger for us than any other torture that I have been through. “I don't want to kill you. Because I have been doing that for years now. But where is the fun is that, hah? No, I have a much better plan for you. I've been given a task to get you and Miss Davis, but I was never told what to actually do with you. The only thing that I have to do is get you to cooperate with me,” he said. My mind was trying hard to put together the pieces that he was giving to me. Cooperate? Cooperate with whom? What was happening? Who sent him? My mind was just running with thoughts, and yet somehow nothing really happened.

“Oh, I can see the questions in your eyes,” he laughed. “Don't worry. You'll find out about them soon enough. But now, let's have a little fun Don't you think?” I looked at him as if I wanted to strangle him with my bare hands. “Ouch, that's it, that's what I need! A little fire. Good, good, you are ready,” he said, and then one minute later I got an extra injection.

And so did Riley. It took a couple of seconds for it to actually have any effect on us. She was slipping away faster than I did. I could still see when her eyes closed and she lost consciousness. I had no idea how we were supposed to get out of this situation. I didn't even know if I could ever get out of it. But Riley… She was not saying no. Even if I had to die in the process, she was going out of here in one piece. The funny thing is that my last thought was, I hope, Alex is looking for her. I never would have thought that I would ever be grateful for Alex Hastings showing up in our lives and falling for the woman I wanted with all my heart. 

🖇🖇🖇

Time has lost its meaning. It could have been hours. Could have been days, but maybe it was just a couple of minutes while we were dozed off. By the time I woke up again Riley was already talking to Murdoc.

“And what exactly do you want to do with us?” she asked. This was the old Riley Davis, the one who didn't care about anything or anyone. She was fierce, fearless. And every bit of my body loved her for it.

“For now we are just waiting for Boy Scout to wake up, and then we can start playing again,” Murdoc said and turned to me. “Look, here is!”

“That's enough of your games, Murdoc,” I said, my voice was hoarse, barely understandable. I had to clear my throat again. “Come on. I know you want something, you always want something. Speak!”

“No. As much as I like to talk to you guys, this time, you are going to talk to each other. I am just here to instruct and motivate you,” this vague answer was way more unsettling than hearing he wanted to murder us slowly and painfully. But talking to Riley? Why did he want us to talk to each other? What on earth was this maniac playing this time?

“You want us to talk?” Riley asked, and sent him a very quizzical look. “You can't really expect us to believe that that's all you want.

“Well, not all I want,” he admitted. “I want you to suffer,” he said so plainly, as if it was the most natural explanation ever. “I mean let's be honest.We are not really on good terms lately. Are we, Boy Scout?”

“Considering how many times you try to kill us Murdoc, I don't really think that we are friends.”

“Ah, don't be so mean! Fights happen even between best friends and lovers! And just so you know. I am here to help you.I accidentally overheard the two of you talking about, how do we say it: your emotionally charged situation here,” he looked at us like a crazy psychologist. If this was his plane, to analyse us until we die I chose the fast death… “And you see the funny part is that, I was so sure by this time, you two would be together, making pretty babies. It would be so annoying... as smart as you are, MacGyver.

“If you let us go maybe we can work on that plan,” it slipped out of my mouth.  _ What the hell. I wasn't supposed to say that. Why did I say that? _ Riley looked at me as if I lost my mind by saying something like that. The truth is, even I thought I lost my mind. What the hell was I talking about?

“Oh, here we go. It's working!”

“What is working?” I asked.

“Soon you will know. And what is your secret plan for the future, Miss Davis?”

“I don't know what you're talking about Murdoc,” Riley’s face said everything: this was no longer a dangerous situation, it was pure insanity!

“My God, she's the stronger one, I like it,” Murdoc started laughing. “You know exactly what I'm talking about, Ms Davis, don't say, don't try to lie. It's not going to work. At least not now.”

Don’t try to lie. What was he talking about? Oh. Suddenly everything clicked. The injection we got. That too confident look in his eyes waiting for us to talk, knowing that we are not able to lie. We were given something, a truth serum.

“Exactly, MacGyver,” I didn't even notice that I was talking out loud.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked for the fifth time already. No answer. “Okay, what do you want us to talk about? Phoenix secrets?”

“I don't know, really, you seem so boring right now,” he was mocking us again and my blood pressure started reaching the roof.

“This is insane, even from you… Just let her go,” I repeated what I earlier said, 

“I can’t. You see, we need, Miss Davis.”

“What do you mean, we need her?” finally got something we could work with. I looked at Riley but she kept her head down.

“Truth is, MacGyver, you are not really needed for this mission but I thought you were there already so why not use the opportunity that gives itself so freely,” Murdoc gave us a shrug. No matter how hard I tried to think, my mind was now too full of questions of what was happening, what I thought we should do, how to get out of here. It was just way too much. “Here we go again, somebody slipping off to sleep.” I lost consciousness again.

🖇🖇🖇

The next time I woke, Riley was already crying. Hearing her be in so much pain felt like I myself felt the same. I shook my head to wake up faster. We had a long way to figure out what Murdoc had in mind for us this time. I tried to take one more careful look around the table next to us, but there were no labelled chemicals. And before I could have figured out what that huge machine was not far from us, Murdoc blocked my view. He waved at me like a child and then gave me another shot of injection. 

“What the hell is that?” I asked with frustration. 

“Oh, that?” He pointed at the infusion. “That is not from me, my presents are on your wrists and on your necks,” he smiled like a mischievous child again. The only difference was that his mischief was to kill us the most painful way he could imagine. “You see I always had issues with emotions, and feelings. But not so long ago I made a new friend, and let me tell you I am not a team up guy but we have so much fun.”

“What are you talking about?” I could barely finish my sentence when Andrews, the one we had been looking for for months now, walked into the room. Riley couldn’t see him but she saw my reaction and that was enough for her to start panicking. Murdoc was already bad enough. But Murdoc and Andrews… it was a death sentence. 

“Hello, Mr MacGyver,” he greeted me. “Long time no see. And let me guess this is the lovely Ms Davis I heard so much about. What a beauty, and what a fierce look. I am not surprised even a genius like yourself gets confused about his feelings when it comes to such a lady.”

Andrews was there for, what, like 1 minute and he already pushed my buttons. 

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Don’t you?” he asked and pulled an old, rusty chair closer so now he was sitting between me and Riley. Her eyes were heavy with anger. “The last time we met, as I remember you had a pretty speech about sacrificing the woman you loved while you tried to catch Codex. But when we caught you it seemed your heart belonged to this young lady… Now tell me, Mr MacGyver, which one are you in this story: the fool or the liar?”

“I…,” what was I supposed to say? 

“Just as I expected,” he said. He moved a bit closer, lowered his voice like he wanted to whisper a secret to me. “You are both. The most dangerous liars are those who can convince even themselves that they are saying the truth. I knew I can’t trust you so that’s why I brought my special recipe,” he nodded to Murdoc who gave an extra shot to me and then to Riley. She was sitting there, eyes empty, no emotions on her face. 

“Let me guess,” I looked at Andrews, “sodium pentothal”

“Among other things,” he said with a cocky smile. “I just need to make sure there are no lies between us.”

“If you are so smart you should know it is not actually a truth serum,” I tried to wipe off his smile with words instead of my hands. “It only makes it harder to lie but not impossible… Doesn’t do more than a drinking night with friends and whiskey”

“Smart boy.” Andrews commented and looked at Murdoc. “That is exactly why my friend here gave you those shiny new wrist and neck cuffs. Let me tell you how this game is going to work: you are both connected to the same lie detector. If it detects any kind of lie it electrocutes you. But you know what my favourite part is?” He asked, looking all excited. “When you lie, it’s Ms Davis who gets a shot, and when she lies, it’s your turn… Isn’t it exciting in how many ways you can be linked to a person?”

My eyes ran through the system they built up and even though I was scared of what was coming I had to admit this was a thorough plan. But the problem is that with these lie detectors that sometimes even if you tell the truth due to the heart rate increase and heavy breathing, it can make mistakes… and then it’s Riley who suffers. 

“She has been shot already,” I said looking at her. She seemed in pain already, hell knows what butchered job Murdoc did with that bullet. “Let her go, take her to a hospital, and then you can torture me as much as you want! Kill me if you want!”

“Mac, stop it!” Riley said suddenly. 

When she looked into my eyes I could feel how she was pleading with me.  _ Don’t leave me alone. _ She was begging me.  _ I can’t do this without you _ . She was suffering already.  _ You promised. _ She was right. Andrews, no matter what a psycho he was, had a good point. I wasn’t honest with myself for a very long time now. But even if I admitted what I felt, like Desi suggested, I couldn’t shrug off the feeling: everyone I ever loved was gone. It felt like I was destined to lose the people who mattered the most to me, and admitting my feelings for Riley in front of Murdoc and Andrews wasn’t going to end any differently. 

“I can see we finally got your attention,” Andrews gave me a half smile. “Ready for your first round?”

“What if I don’t answer at all?”

“Very simple, both of you get electrocuted, like this,” and suddenly pain spread all over my body, making me almost scream. When I finally opened my eyes I saw Riley trying to swallow back her tears. “Now, shall we start with something easy? Why did you ask for a second chance with a woman you were not in love, Mr MacGyver? Or am I wrong?”

“But I do love her,” I said immediately. For a second nothing happened then suddenly Riley cried out in pain. “What? I said the truth!”

“Maybe, but you didn’t answer my question,” Andrews said. “I asked if you were in love with her.” He was right and I knew that subconsciously my mind was playing me. Desi’s words have been the truth I didn’t even admit to myself. “So why?”

“Because I care about her and I wanted to give us another chance to try” and again Riley was in pain. “I am so sorry, Riles! I am not lying…”

“I told you the most dangerous liars are the ones lying to themselves… I’ll give you a little time, let’s see if you can find the honest answer in yourself, hopefully before Ms Davis gives up,” every bit of my body wanted to get rid of those cuffs and kill this man, but when he said Riley’s name I turned to her and started whispering a broken sorry. “Now, look at us, Murdoc, how rude we have been neglecting poor Ms Davis.”

“Indeed. Let me,” Murdoc took Andrews’ place, put his hands on his knees and turned to Riley. “I sense a little bit of tension in you, Riley, I hope it’s okay if I call you Riley, I mean we all are a big happy group of friends at this point, aren’t we? The last time I met my favourite Phoenix team, you were so helpful, got me a book.” he looked at Andrews with pure happiness on his face. This man was all kinds of crazy. “Now, I bet it must be hard to be in the shadows of the famous Angus MacGyver, isn’t it?”

“No, it isn’t,” she said with perfect confidence. “Mac is the best of us.”

“But sometimes you wish you were given the same respect and appreciation, don’t you?”

“I… Yes, I have been feeling I could do more, I want to be better, but that is no secret.”

“Good. You see, MacGyver, it’s not that hard to admit things,” Murdoc turned to me.

“You gave her an easy question” Andrews shook his head.

“Oh, come on, she was so lovely while Sleeping Blondie was unconscious, I thought I should return the favour” Murdoc said. What did he mean she was lovely while I was out? What did he do? Looking at Riles, who kept her eyes on the ground, I knew something was wrong. 

“Mr MacGyver, did you find the truth in yourself?” Andrews asked me again.  _ Oh, for the love of God! _ “So you didn’t ask for a second chance because you care about that woman and you wanted to try again? What then?”

I had to admit, I wasn’t even sure what was a lie anymore. Yes, I cared about Desi, deeply. Yes, I wanted to try again, even though we always seemed to fail miserably. But was really this the main reason? According to the lie detector it wasn’t. 

“Come on, MacGyver,” in the corner of my mind I saw Andrews inject one more shot of truth serum. “Just try to remember, when was the first time you decided to ask for a new chance? When did you start convincing yourself she is the one you want to be with?”

“We were under lockdown, I didn’t even see her for months,” I started remembering, but somehow my thoughts came out in sentences. Riley looked at me curiously, so I closed my eyes instead. I couldn’t watch her reaction. “We were at the house all the time, and it was just so natural, it all felt so right, and time was flying. I felt so calm, like I found some sort of peace, and I wanted so much to…” No, not this part. I directed my thoughts back to Desi appearing, me thinking of how I screwed up and maybe we should try again. Though it wasn’t what I thought. “After the pandemic Desi showed up a couple of times, she tried to talk, be friends but I wasn’t ready, and everytime she came Riley vanished until one day she decided to leave. She just left without saying anything, explaining what was wrong. I was left alone again and Desi came and I thought maybe being with her was better than being alone wishing for Riley to come back to me.”

This time there was no crying, it seemed maybe I did find the truth in me. But knowing that Desi was just a way of trying to escape loneliness, it was just too cruel to admit, especially after knowing how much she suffered for the same reason from her family. When I opened my eyes Riley was avoiding my look. I feared she was thinking the same: I was playing with Desi all along? What kind of man does this? But did she miss the part where I said I wished it was her? Maybe she didn’t look at me because she wasn’t feeling the same way. 

“Oh, Riley, is that true? Did you leave without saying a word?” Murdoc asked. He was entertained and I could hear it in his voice. Riley just nodded. It seemed this wasn’t an answer for them because a moment later my whole body twitched. 

“Yes, yes, it is true!” She yelled, her eyes looking at me asking for forgiveness. 

“That's interesting!” Murdoc commented. “Even though I haven’t been around lately if I heard correctly you were the one who saved the Boy Scout from being bombed when he joined the dark side? Now tell me, why did you save him if you didn’t care about him enough to give him an explanation?”

It was her turn to think. She was staring at me, as if she was trying to find a way to put everything into words. I knew how it felt. 

“I went after him because I trust him” she said and again a jolt of pain went through me. She closed her eyes, trying to hold back the tears. “I’m sorry… I don’t know!” One more round of pain, but this time I could see it was clearly initiated by Andrews not by her lying. They wanted to push her to say something she couldn’t. 

“Why are you doing this,” I interrupted. “Just let her go! Murdoc, you have been trying to kill me for years now, why not do it now? Here I am!”

“Don’t you understand, MacGyver?” he stepped to me. He looked so sincere like he wanted to really help me out here. “I don’t want to kill you! Maybe you don’t believe me yet but we are not so different. I won’t kill you, I am going to break you. And I will enjoy every second of seeing how this goodness, this light in your eyes slowly disappears.”

“Then why not let her go?” I was desperate at this point. 

“Because she is your light,” Andrews answered. “Wasn’t she the one who took you back to your right path? Who always made sure you were not alone to give into your pain?”

I didn’t know what to say. She was really the one who always showed up when I needed a friend. She calmed me down when I was losing my hope. She always made sure I knew I could count on her. She was willing to leave everything behind for me. And she never asked for anything in return. Why didn’t she? When I didn’t answer, because I was so deep in thoughts I forgot Andrews asked me, he was kind enough to remind me by giving both of us another round of pain, this time a bit longer than before. When I heard Riley letting out a painful sob, I broke. 

“Yes, she was! She came out of nowhere and saved me not just from being shot down or getting caught but from going down on a path I might have never turned back from. She was the reason I didn’t die and she is the reason I am still breathing.”

“You see, you can do this, MacGyver,” Murdoc was so happy his face was almost comical. 

“Follow his lead, Ms Davis,” Andrews ordered Riley. “I know at first it’s hard to but you’ll find out soon enough how much weight you are keeping on your shoulders. Tell me, why did you really go after him? Did you think he went rogue? Did you think maybe he was right and you wanted to join him?”

“No!” she cried out. “There is not even one bone in his body that would be evil. Mac is the most caring and kind man I have met, and nothing ever could make him do all those things that Codex was planning.” She was speaking fast, trying to get through all of this mess. 

“Then why did you go after him? It cannot be only because you trust him,” Andrews was willing to push her off the edge, I could tell. But a very selfish part of me couldn’t wait for the answer. She was repeating the same answer that she told me. Even back then I knew it was just a half truth, I kept wondering later why did she risk so much for me?

When Riley didn’t answer for a couple of minutes with a painful reminder, Andrews made her focus. At this point I couldn't feel anything else but emptiness. 

“Because I promised him…” she started silently. This time she looked me in the eye, like she was preparing for telling me all of this for a while now but never had the courage. “I told him he is not alone, and yet when I woke up that morning and everybody was saying he went rogue and he had to be captured all I could think of is that I left him alone. He needed me and I didn’t listen. He asked for my support not long before and I was too worried about him to see I was about to lose him. When I found out where he was I didn’t even think twice. I just knew my place was next to him. That’s why I agreed to join Phoenix again, that’s why I wasn’t so afraid in Germany when we were about to die, that’s why I went to him after I left the first person who was willing to love me… because none of these matter, just like Codex didn’t matter to me. It was always him. Only him.”

For a while no one said anything. She kept her eyes closed now. No matter how hard I wished she looked at me, so I could tell her with my eyes how much I wanted her to be with me too, to be always next to me… But Andrews beat me to it again.

“Thank you, Ms Davis for being true,” the condescending buddhist calmness in his voice crept into my bones. “This whole Codex problem, it has destroyed so much for you, as I can see. But tell me, MacGyver, why did you do it then? You knew you were risking a lot, not just your job but everyone who you love. And yet you did it anyway. Why did you go alone?”

“Because that was the most logical plan,” I spit it out without thinking. My anger was clouding my thinking because a second later Riley cried out in pain again. Her cry echoed in me. I took a deep breath and tried to answer honestly. “I went alone because I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.” Andrews wasn’t entirely satisfied with my answer, I could see his fingers fidgeting with the button of the remote control. I quickly started talking again. “The night before I started this whole mess I was thinking about who I had no one left except for my aunt who just showed up in my life and gave me all of these things to think about. Of course I know it was stupid of me, I have a family even if we are not blood! But I was desperate I needed to know I still belonged, I had someone to lean on and a stupid part of my brain thought maybe with Gwen leaving Codex I could have a new family.”

“So you are saying you never, even for a short time did you consider actually joining Codex? It was all along just a facade?” Andrews crossed his arms in front of him, his hands covering his mouth. 

“Of course I didn’t want to join!” I replied and the cry Riley let out froze my whole body. After what she said about me, after seeing how much faith she had in me being good, how was I supposed to tell her I was lying. But Andrews looked at me, challenging me, while on my other side Murdoc shifted in his seat a wild smile on his face. 

This was it. This was what they were going for all this time. Murdoc wanted to break me, prove I was deep down just as bad as they were. He already saw it in me back when I pretended to be him. He saw what I could become and now Codex brought that side of me alive… the only thing standing between me and that void, dark self I buried in me was Riles. If I said it out loud now that the person she trusted so deeply wasn’t half as good as she thought I might have lost the best thing I ever had. One more long jolt of pain ran through both of our bodies, assuring I answered.

“There was one moment,” I whispered, “when Gwen told me about my mother. How all of this was her idea and how it was my legacy to finish it. Thinking back to everything we have done during our missions, what we saw was happening in the world… For a split second I admit I thought they were right, the human race deserves to see the backlash of their actions. We are selfish, egoistic, we don’t pay attention, we don’t care what or who we hurt, we are fools believing we cannot be taken down in one split second. Yes, I was on the edge of believing they were right and I was about to help them do it… until Riley came. I was reminded how much we can still do, how we just have to find out a solution together. All I needed was her. Only her.” my words so perfectly mirrored hers it was impossible to deny what we felt. If our story was about to end at least we did it together, knowing how much we meant to each other. Knowing after everything we have been through, we could still find love in the cracks of our chaos.

“I think both of you were very brave,” Andrews broke the silence. “I know how hard it is to leave all those lies that you’ve been telling yourselves for years now. But you did good, we can work on the rest later.” I felt too void to even try to understand what they wanted. I just kept my eyes on Riley and silently hoped one day she can forgive me for dragging her into a situation like this. All because I went after Codex…

“The only question that needs to be answered now is for Ms Davis,” Andrews stood up and slowly asked: “Do we have a deal?”

“No…” she shook her head,her voice trembling a bit. I could see her body shiver, too. She was getting worse and I had no idea how to help her.

“No? Even after what your sweet and kind MacGyver said?” Murdoc pulled out his gun and slowly walked to me. I could feel the cold steel on my temple. “Are you sure your answer is no?”

“What are you doing? You said you are not going to kill him!” Riley’s voice was now breaking, all the screaming and yelling were taking their toll on her.

“I said I don't  _ want  _ to kill him, but if that is your final decision I am afraid he is useless to us,” Murdoc said, panic immediately clouding Riley’s look. “As for you, my dear Boy Scout, why don’t you say it out loud, just once? I am sure you don’t want to die without ever saying those words, do you?”

“Riles…” I looked her deep in the eye. Whatever they wanted from her she couldn’t say yes. 

“Mac, please, dont leave me alone,” her voice was barely a whisper now. 

“You are never going to be alone,” I took one deep breath, “because I love you.” I heard the cock of the gun click and I knew what was following.

“Stop, stop, please, I’ll do it,” she shouted, tears all over her face, trying to free herself of the cuffs. I wish I could have held her in my arms one more time. “I’ll join Codex and I’ll hack the Pentagon as many times as you want, but he is coming with me and if anything happens to him, the deal is off!”

“Good choice,” Andrews said and nodded to Murdoc, who put away the gun. “Let’s get them out of these chairs and hit the road, we have a lot to do.”

One minute later we were both free but with our bodies still weak, our minds still tortured we could barely move. But as soon as Andrews and Murdoc moved out of the way, I flew out of my chair and she did the same. She was holding me so tightly I could barely get any oxygen in my lungs. Yet, I was never happier. All I needed to breathe was her, right there, with me, and I made a promise never to let go again. She pulled away soon, looking at me, her eyes searching for an answer. She didn’t have to ask.

“Yes. I have loved you since the day we met but I was a fool not understanding what it meant. I can’t remember my days before you and I can’t imagine the rest of my days without you,” nothing ever felt so freeing as saying those words and seeing her eyes brighten up. 

“Mac…,” her hands caressed my face. “I love you, too…”

As if that was the only thing still keeping her on her feet, her body gave up and I caught her before she could have fallen to the ground. I said her name a hundred times, but she didn’t respond. I could see how the bandages Murdoc did were slowly soaking in her blood.  _ No, no, not now. Not like this, please. _

“Didn’t I tell you, Mr MacGyver? The truth always sets you free. Especially if it kills someone else in the process,” Andrews said behind my back and then everything went dark. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, Happy New Year eeveryone, I hope you all have a wonderful year, I already feel it is going to be great thanks to you all showing all the support and love for this fic.  
> Second, I am sorry it took 2 whol days to write this but, boy, I had no idea how not to torture them haha. I am very good with sad emotions but with happiness, not really, but you shall be the judges of that.  
> And third, the ending of this chapter is not very explicit but if your ane not a fan of smut you can stop after they leave the party. I should say thats your signal to leave this party too, hahaha. This is my first time writing a scene like that so don't judge too harsly, thanks :D 
> 
> Otherwise, this is fully Mac's POV, but we'll see Riley's in the next one. Good things are on the way now only, so don't worry these lovebirds are about to fly. 
> 
> Without further ranting, enjoy this chapter, let me know what you thought here or on Twitter (@whatsabex)  
> Love ya xx

**Chapter 7**

**Mac**

If someone told me a week ago that soon I'll be at the Codex base again, having dinner in my own room and doing absolutely nothing, I would have laughed my head off. And yet it happened. It's been 4 days since I woke up, what now I know is, in my assigned room. It wasn't much: a bed, a table, a nightstand and a wardrobe with maybe three different clothes in it. Interestingly nothing I could have taken apart to build hell knows what. Leland didn’t trust me and it was mutual. Thankfully the room was big enough for me to stroll around for hours, waiting for someone to come and tell me how Riley was. The first day Jacobson, who helped Carlyle escape, came to bring me some food and tell me that Riley was in the medical and they were trying to get out the bullet from her shoulder. I demanded to see her as soon as she was out of surgery but he said it’s not possible and left. A spent a couple of hours screaming but no one cared enough to even come in and silence me, and after a while exhaustion beat me down to sleep. Jacobson was bringing me food the next 3 days too, never saying anything, only that Riley was still unconscious, recovering after the surgery but she was going to be fine. Like I would ever believe a word they were saying! 

On the fourth day I was already going crazy with being incapable of doing anything. I wasn’t used to this. And the more time I spent alone the darker my thoughts turned: what if they were lying to me and Riley was getting tortured somewhere to help them? What if she was already… No, that was the only path I couldn’t go down without actually driving myself insane. So I tried to focus on her smile, how she always made fun of Jack, how excited she was whenever I came up a stupid idea and never doubting me… how she said she loved me. Those few seconds while she was in my arms, whispering my name and saying those words, I was the happiest man on Earth. I finally managed to put my feelings into words and I now just couldn’t stop. I had to tell her again, and see her smile and know we are going to be okay. 

“Good afternoon, Mr MacGyver,” Leland took his time showing up after 4 days of waiting. Looking up from sitting on the bed, I saw Leland slowly make his way into my room. In a second I was on my feet, approaching him, to grab his ridiculously neat shirt and beat him until he let me see Riles. But before I could have gotten the chance Roman got between us. Great. “I understand you are upset about Ms Davis, but I can assure you she is perfectly fine.”

“Perfectly fine?” I asked with more anger than I should have shown. But at this point they already knew how much we meant to each other and Leland was smart enough to figure a way out to use it against us. Actually he already has that’s why we were here. “I don’t know about you but in my experience people being shot, possibly having internal bleeding and then getting kidnapped, drugged and electrocuted is not really the definition of perfectly fine.”

“What I meant is that she is fine now, just woke up,” every other thought was gone from my mind. “But before I could accompany you to her I wanted to let you know: you and Ms Davis are let’s say special guests here. As long as she keeps her deal, I am going to do the same. However, don’t take me for a fool, Mr MacGyver, I am very well aware of your skills, not long ago I even gave you an invitation to join us which you clearly declined by ruining everything we have been working on for years now. And yet, here we are. I only want you to know that you are here because I need Ms Davis, and if you two decide to pull something like the next time, I am not going to take risks.” That was the most sophisticated way of anyone ever telling me they’ll kill me if I screw up. “This time you don’t have to fake anything, clear slates and honesty. Now, let’s get you to Ms Davis.

“Riles,” her name sounded like a prayer when I finally saw her lying in a bed, monitors checking her vitals. 

I had to give credit to Leland, his people really did a good job, Riley already seemed a lot stronger than the last time I saw her. Without hesitation I ran to her and sat on her bedside, her left hand was already extended so I grabbed it. Why the hell did they put cuffs on her? Like she could have gotten out of this place anyways… Seeing her covered in blood, unconscious was now a picture engraved in my mind and I tried my best to start focusing on anything else but that. 

“According to our doctor, Ms Davis should be good as new in a couple of days,” Leland said behind me. I didn’t even bother looking into his direction. “She can spend the night in her own assigned room now, unless…” I knew what he was insinuating, and I didn’t care what he was thinking, I replied immediately.

“No need, she is staying in mine,” I said and I saw her shocked look, I knew she thought it was way too fast. “Could you leave us alone now?”

“Of course,” Leland said. “But Roman is going to be at the door, just to make sure you are escorted back to your room. And don’t forget about our meeting tomorrow, Miss Davis.”

Riley just nodded. I should have asked what they tal ked about before I got here because apparently Leland was here when she woke up. I also should have asked about the meeting tomorrow and the deal she made but all of my thoughts were noew behind one thing: to make sure she was okay. As soon as we were left alone I moved a little bit closer to her, and with one hand holding hers I used my other to clear a stray hair out of her face. She closed her eyes and started smiling. She started sitting up and I wanted to stop her but she was already hugging me tightly. I let out a deep sigh. 

“It’s okay, I got you,” I said and she started laughing. She let me go, but out hands were still locked together. 

“Just once I really loved to hear that when we are not in danger,” she said and it was my turn to laugh.

“I promise as soon as we get out of here, we go grab a slice of pizza, play some skee-ball and I will tell you a hundred times, that you got me.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” she said and then looked down at our intertwined hands. They fit so perfectly together, it made me question my intelligence how I never realised it before whenever I held her hands. She went serious in a quick second and I didn’t know what was wrong so I put one of my hands under her chin and lifted it. She finally looked me in the eye but she seemed said. “Mac, I don’t know if we can get out of here ever. I mean it’s not like last time we pretended to join, now we are hostages because even though I said I’ll join Codex we both knew I would never…” she stopped there.

“You’re right,” I tried to assure her we can do this. “This time it is different, and I want you to know that I won’t ever again even consider joining them, it was just a weak moment and I am so sorry I am not the…”

“Hey, no, Mac stop!” She interrupted. “Don’t think for a second that I care about any of that. You were hurt, you lost your dad, you just found out about your aunt being alive, I get it. It’s me, Riley Davis, the girl who went to jail for hacking the NSA, remember? That doesn’t change the fact that you always do the right thing at the end, it only shows that you are human.” She was the only person who could calm me down whenever I started losing my mind and knowing that she didn’t think any less of me for admitting a moment of weakness was just one more reason why I loved her. She took her hand out of mine but before I could have complained she used them to cradle my face. “I do have a question though…” I looked at her, ready to tell her anything. At this point we had no secrets and I didn’t need them. “It’s been a couple of days, right? So you had time to think about what happened. What I want to say is that, if you changed your mind, or if you didn’t mean it that way, we can still forget everything.”

For a split second I didn’t understand what she said and then it struck me and my heart skipped a beat. Did she seriously believe I could ever change my mind about this? About us? 

“Riles, look at me,” she was scared I could tell. “I have spent 4 days locked in a room. There were no wrist or neck cuffs or drugs and yet it was the worst torture of my life. You know wh? Because I couldn’t stop thinking about losing you right when I got to tell you what I feel. You hear me? I wasn’t tortured into saying something I didn’t mean. Yes, I wish I had the courage to talk to you before and this is definitely not the most ideal way to tell you such important information but it doesn’t change anything. I love you, Riley Davis.”

“But…” 

“There are no buts. This is it, I love you and I have been for a long time now. Truth is I think almost everyone knew by now except for you and me,” I tried to make her laugh but she only smiled a little. “It kills me to say it but I should thank Hastings for finally realising.”

Now she laughed and I knew she believed me. She had this protective mechanism of being skeptical when it came to relationships, I saw it, but she had to know she didn’t need it with me. I had to make sure she knew this was right, it was our time now. 

“That moron made me realise I don't want anyone ever to look at you that way but me, and Desi thought it was not fair to any of us to stay together when my heart clearly belonged to you."

"Wait, Desi knows?" She asked. I nodded.

"The only question is, am I too late?" I was worried she was going to say I blew my chance because I saw the sparks between her and Hastings, even if I hated to admit it. "Did  _ you _ mean what you said?"

She was about to say something when the doctor who must have done the operation for her came in and checked on her. I stood up and moved to the wall. My eyes wandered around the room and found two cameras on at the one in the corner facing the bed. I had to remind myself that we were being watched all along so if we wanted to talk about escaping it had to be done somewhere safe. If there was any place like that here. After around 10 minutes the doctor nodded to Roman, and said Riley was free to go now. She started to get out of the bed but there was barely anything on her so I grabbed a blanket from a nearby chair and wrapped it around her. 

“Since you are staying in one room, Leland assigned a bigger one so you could be  _ comfortable _ ,” Roman said while he led us to a new room not far from the one I originally stayed at. Now that I wasn’t entirely consumed by my worry because Riles was right next to me, I could take a better look at this Codex base. It was smaller than the previous one, and seemingly not as well organised either but they had a new secured place and that was already something. Although obviously Leland more than a few followers. “There will be someone at your door if you need something, otherwise I’ll be here for you tomorrow afternoon at 3pm” And just like that he left so we walked inside the room. It wasn’t much bigger than the one I was staying in earlier, but the bed was definitely bigger.

“What a luxury, we got an armchair,” I scoffed, Riles looked at me. “The other room only had a small picnic chair, a table, a bed and a wardrobe. This is definitely an upgrade.”

“Considering your skills, I am surprised we are not kept in a cell,” Riley smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed. 

Now that we were left alone realisation hit me how little she was wearing under the blanket and suddenly my heart took a faster pace. But no matter what I wanted in the back of my head, I remembered her look in the medical when I said we are staying in the same room, and didn't even wait for her response. I had to remind myself that this thing was all new between us, and even though I have said how much I loved her, we didn't really get the chance to actually talk about what these feelings meant for us. If there was an us. So I took a deep breath.

“You should go have a shower and sleep, we need to get as much rest as possible before we could figure out what’s next,” she was deep in her thoughts but nodded and she moved to the bathroom door. I opened up the wardrobe, took out a T-shirt and shorts and handed it to her. She smiled at me with that half smile she barely used, except for when she was sad or hurt. 

While she was in the shower I kept thinking about what was next because we had a lot to deal with, like a lot. First, I had to figure out what was the deal specifically between Riley and Leland, then we had to figure out a way to get out of this place, but also try to not die in the process. Second, I had to know if she meant those words, I had to know if I blew my chance already, and if for some reason she decided to give me a chance then I had to make sure I was ready. With Desi it was not complex: we fought, we kissed, we had a nice night in the bedroom and we went on until the next fight came. But with Riley, there was too much to risk, I didn’t want her to feel pushed because of what I said. And I definitely didn’t want to go too fast. I made a mental note to take her out on a real date as soon as we got out of here, anything. Just to make sure she didn’t feel I was insinuating something I took one of the pillows and a blanket and voila I had a bed on the floor. I was just getting ready to lie down when Riley came out from the bathroom, hair wet, the short only reaching until the middle of her thighs and the T-shirt was so big it was loose on one of her shoulders so I could get a glimpse of her skin and the fresh gunshot wound. She was beautiful to say the least. 

“Mac?” she asked while she stepped closer to me. I stood up. “What on Earth are you doing on the floor?” Her look was confused but she still smiled. I guess she was getting used to my craziness.

“I just thought… Because there is one bed… and I didn’t want you…”  _ Wow, that was just pathetic. Nice job, MacGyver. _ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I could have tried again, this time maybe not like a 2 years old. 

Riley threw the towel she was using to dry her hair on the chair next to her and stepped in front of me. She didn’t say a thing again, just put her hands on my chest and leaned into my body for a hug. I embraced her for minutes before she pulled away but instead of leaving me there, she slid up her hands to my neck and looked me in the eye.

“Angus MacGyver you are the most clueless genius I have ever met in my life,” it was supposed to be an insult but she was looking at me with those huge brown eyes and I could barely remember how to breathe. “Of course, I meant it…” she couldn’t even finish the sentence, my lips already crashed with hers and I might have died then and there. I remembered once Bozer said he would have died for a kiss from Riley Davis and I laughed. Well, the joke was on me now. She reciprocated my feelings with the same amount of passion and love and I just couldn’t get enough until she let out a painful wince. I moved away with an apology in my eyes. Even if she felt the same way we couldn’t forget that she almost died, her wound barely began healing and oh yeah, we were at the Codex base. Not a very ideal start for a relationship. “Listen to me, you are not too late, and we are going to figure everything out, but I am already exhausted even though I have slept for days. So unless you want to blow your chance by sleeping on the floor, can’t we just go to bed?”

I couldn’t have asked for more. I grabbed the pillow from the floor and while holding her hand we walked to the bed. We were lying next to each other, our faces inches away. For a while we kept staring at each other like we saw the other’s face for the first time. In a way we did. But when Riley started drifting away she turned around, I pulled her closer to me making sure I wasn’t hurting her shoulder and with listening to her steady breathing I found peace. I fell asleep thinking I finally found the one thing that could make me whole: Riley.

🖇🖇🖇

I would have loved to wake up next to Riles, watching her sleep peacefully, which sounds kind of creepy but I just loved it. Or would have loved it if I didn’t wake up the next morning for her being gone from bed. My eyes popped open immediately and with panic resurfacing after the last couple of days, I looked around… Just to find her hiding under the table. The clothes that were neatly folded in the wardrobe last night, now lied on the floor. 

“Riles?”

“Hey!” she didn’t even look at me just kept looking around the table then she moved out just to go to the armchair.

“Okay, what are you..?” she stood up and put her index finger to her mouth signalling to me to shut up. Okay, she didn't have to say it twice. She walked back to the bed and sat down close to me, leaned in and started whispering so quietly I could barely hear her.

“Haven’t you seen all the cameras everywhere? In the medical, the corridors, this place is like the Fortnox, but I cannot see any of those in here,” she pointed out. Oh, great, she was already in mission mode while all I could think of was that I really wanted to kiss her right now.  _ And why don’t you then? You can, remember? _ A wide smile grew on my face thanks to this thought and a second later I leaned in and pulled her for a long, good morning kiss. She was surprised for a second but didn’t object at all, considering how fast she was sitting on me.  _ Oh boy, you better stop now, before it’s too late… _ And again, the voice in my head was damn right. 

“Good morning,” she said when I pulled away. 

“Oh, it is a good morning, alright,” I replied which made her let out a small laugh but then I lowered my voice too. “About what you were saying. Yeah, Leland is not stupid, he is dfinitely keeping an eye on us, or I assuem in this case an ear, so did you fin anything?”

“Not yet,” she said with a bit of annoyance. “I checked everything. But I am sure he is listening to every word you and me say. We have to figure something out, Mac.”

“And we will, together, don’t worry” I put my hands around her back and hugged her while she was still sitting on me. “But first you have to tell me your dela with him.”

“There wasn’t much of a deal, Mac,” she said the playfulness that was in her eyes a minute ago was now gone. She shifted her weight and was now sitting next to me. I had to admit it helped a lot to be able to focus on her words. “You know yourself, as Gwen said it Leland doesn’t really tell his plans to anyone only gives parts. He sent Murdoc and Andrews to get me because apparently he needs me to hack something. Murdoc said he didn’t include you in the deal so ifI didn’t want to cooperate he was supposed to shoot you. So I took the deal blindly. Yesterday he came to me when I woke up saying he was amazed by the things he heard about Artemis37, and he asked if I really did hack the Pentagon and the NSA, when I said yes, he told me if I am willing to do what he asks me you and me are going to be safe here.”

“Not much of a promise…” I said. “Okay, so that means he has a new pla and it involves you hacking possibly the Pentagon or hell knows what. What about today’s meeting, any idea?” She shook her head. 

We didn’t have to wait too long to find out the answer for that question. As it turned out we slept quite late that day because after taking a shower and checking everything twice for a bug or a wire but haven’t found a thing. Just in case we kept talking about everything in a hushed voice while we put things back to their original places, and folded the clothes back to the wardrobe. We got some food from Jacobson again but none of us was really hungry so we kept on talking about what might Leland want this time. We went through most of Riley’s hacking history when Roman showed up to take us to the meeting. 

“Good afternoon, Miss Davis, Mr MacGyver,” Leland greeted us while he was fidgeting with a plant. He must have had a very serious attachment to nature to make sure all of his bases had a little garden in it. “I hope you could get some rest.”

“Yes.” Riley said plainly. She wasn’t playing according to Leland’s plans, I could already feel it. “So what are we here for exactly?”

“Such fire, Andrews was right,” Leland smiled but it only made him look more evil somehow. “Alright, Miss Davis, let’s get to the point. I have a friend who is let’s say has something I very much would like to have. And I am going to need you to get it for me.”

“You want us to steal something?” I asked. This didn’t make sense. Needing Riley to hack half of the American networks, that was a logical decision, she was the best, but for a theft? 

“No need, we have an agreement. He is hosting a party tonight which I was invited to where we were supposed to finish up our deal, but as you might have noticed I am not a very outgoing person, so I told him I am going to send you two, and he was more than happy to meet you. He is a big fan of your talents, Miss Davis, or as he knows you Artemis. So the plan is very plain and simple, perfect for a first mission in our cooperation,” there was a slight edge in his voice and in his eyes when he turned to us, as if it was a warning: do not fail this test. “You go, have a drink or two, even have some fun, talk to Mr Martinez, you get me what we agreed on and you come back here. Of course Roman is going to escort you.”

Riley and I looked at each other thinking the same thing: there must be a catch. Risking a possible escape just to send us to get him something? It could have been easily done by any other man, but he chose us. 

“I have asked for a proper tux for you, Mr MacGyver, and some dresses you can choose from, Miss Davis, they should be in your room by now, so if you have no other questions then I wish you a lovely evening,” Leland dismissed us without even looking into our direction, he was again too busy with watering a flower. We were almost out of the door when he decided to add something else. “Just a little note: Mr Marinez is a nice gentleman but he is a bit impulsive. But I am sure you can handle him if things don’t go according to plan.”

There it was, the catch. Riley must have thought the same thing because she put on a sarcastic smile and responded.

“What a coincidence, improvising when things go sideways is exactly our specialty, isn’t it Mac?” I just nodded. Leland hasn't uttered a word.

When we got back to our room, Roman said he’ll be back at 7 pm sharp, we have to be ready by then. He was definitely not happy with being our babysitter, and truth be told I would have loved to get rid of him too. In the room there was a tux on the bed and a bunch of other dresses and shoes for Riley, as Leland said it. She just rolled her eyes and lowered her voice to a whisper.

“This is ridiculous,” I couldn't have agreed more. “He is sending  _ us _ to get something he already paid for? What are we errand boys? Something is not okay here.” This whole whispering thing was getting annoying so I took her hand and went into the bathroom. Anyone else would have looked at me as if I lost my marble but not he, she knew me too well. I opened the shower and let it create as much background noise as possible.

“You’re right, something is definitely off,” I said finally in a normal voice. “Don’t worry no matter how strong a radio transmitter, is it can’t clear out such a loud background noise. So as much as I don’t like to go in blind, I am afraid we don’t have much choice. But at least this could be a good opportunity to escape.”

For a while she didn’t say anything and I wasn’t sure what I said that got her so deep in thoughts. She had that cute wrinkle between her eyebrows now so I knew it must have been important. 

“No we can’t escape.” She said it so plainly, I thought I heard wrong. When she looked at me she rolled her eyes. “I am not saying I want to join them forever, Mac, I am saying we can’t  _ just _ escape. I am sick of always watching behind my back, or running into Codex every now and then. I don’t want to spend the next couple of years of always worrying when they attack again. They kidnapped Russ, now they have taken us, and even if we escape, how can we know they are not going to take Bozer next? Or Matty? I want this to be over, for good, Mac. I want to take down Leland and make sure he stays in a deep dark hole with Murdoc and Andrews.”

I never really knew that a person can be beautiful in so many different ways. The cute Riley with messy hair this morning was one type of beautiful, but this fire burning in her eyes, this was something different and not any less beautiful. I pulled her in for a deep kiss to tell her how much I loved her hunger for doing the right thing. 

“Let’s do it then,” I said with a proud smile on my face. “You’re the famous Artemis37 so you should lead tonight’s mission. Tell me, boss, what’s the plan?”

She lifted an eyebrow, and with an excited smile she put on her bossy face. 

“First, you gotta get a shower, meanwhile I’m going to choose a dress, and then we get ready. The most important thing is to pay attention. We need every piece of information we can get to find a way out of here, so keep your eyes and ears open at the party, we are going to do this in an old-fashioned way,” she gave me the orders, while not looking any less frightening than Matty usually does. She was about to leave the bathroom when I grabbed her hand. 

“So my first task, it sounds pretty complex, I mean taking shower, yeah I might need some help with that,” I could see for one second her eyes darkened, her pupils dilated. I knew I was playing at the wrong time, but we have waited so much already and the thought of having her in every possible way was driving me crazy. 

“If you can’t do this, how am I supposed to trust you with...” she seductively stepped closer until our faces were an inch away. “With more challenging tasks tonight? Should I look for another candidate?”

I kissed her quickly and with my hand playing around her waist and ass I gave her a clear demonstration how much I needed her to stop teasing me. But on the other hand, it was so addictive, finally being able to say the words I thought in the back of my mind knowing she had the same little voice in her head, too. She pulled away, breathing heavily and snuck out of the bathroom before we could have gone too far. While I was taking a cold shower all I could think of was not the danger we were possibly facing, but the way she said  _ more challenging tasks tonight _ were coming. I couldn’t wait.

After the shower, Riley switched with me, took a red dress she chose to the bathroom to get ready. I put on the tux and played with my tie for a rather long time. Jacobson brought us some dinner to make sure we didn’t leave without eating anything. I was absentmindedly eating something when the bathroom door opened and Riley came out huffing about her zipper. One look at her was enough for me to almost choke. She stopped and looked at me with worry but after a minute I could stop coughing. Now all I had to do was to figure out how to breathe. Riley was wearing a tight deep red dress that was barely reaching the middle of her thighs and it had only one shoulder with a long sleeve which was perfect to hide her bulletwound. The contrast between the bare and the covered parts of her skin was maddening. 

“This stupid zipper got stuck, could you help me?” she asked. She turned around just to give me one more quick heart attack. The dress had a deep V-cut at the back and the way it showed her figure like the dress was a second skin… I needed to adjust my tie, it was getting hard to breathe again. It took me two minutes to get the zipper work but I wasn’t going to complain. When I was done my hands subconsciously started to wander up on her back, earning a deep sigh and a shiver from her. A knock on the door stopped my hand.

We both turned around. Roman came in, asked if we were ready. When said almost, we just need a minute he left saying he’ll be waiting outside. Before we could have left, Riley stood in front of me, adjusted my tie and whispered.

“Remember, keep your eyes and ears open and stay focused!” 

“If you wanted me to stay focused,” I said with a wicked grin on my face, “you shouldn’t have worn that dress.”

“Is that so?” she asked and the smile she gave me… oh, I should have known better than to play with fire. “Maybe next time I won’t wear any dresses to help you out.”  _ I’m fucked. _

🖇🖇🖇

Leland was not playing games, as soon as we sat in the car we both smelled something weird and a couple of seconds later Riley dozed off and I almost immediately followed her into deep sleep. This way he could definitely make sure we had no idea where we were going or from where we started. Roman woke us up at the gates of the place where the party was. Well, whoever this Mr Martinez was, he definitely didn’t have financial problems. Roman was right behind us as we walked up on the stairs. When the man at the door asked for our invitation Roman handed one to him.

“Thank you. Have a lovely evening, Miss Artemis and Mr Tesla,” he said and bowed a little while we walked in. 

“Miss Artemis?”

“Mr Tesla?” We asked at the same time. Roman didn’t show any interest in explaining our code names.

“I do not see Mr Martinez yet, and he is usually not very keen on handling business during a party,” he explained this instead. “So we are going to wait for his signal, as soon as he is ready to talk, we’ll go to his study, get what we came here for and leave, understood?”

Riley just shot him a not too pleasant look.

“How much does this Mr Martinez know about our involvement in Codex?”

“He knows you are working with us, nothing else. He still thinks you are Artemis, so you should behave accordingly, and he might have heard the name MacGyver, but he doesn’t know your face so I suggest you to just stay Mr Tesla,” there was so much warning in his voice, I knew this night was not going to be that simple as Leland said it would. From the corner of my eye, I saw Riley stiffen up a bit. 

I put my hand on her back and started drawing circles on her bare skin to calm her down. But when she looked at me, there was no worry or fear. She took Roman’s advice and put on her hard exterior. A couple of times we got a glimpse of this side of hers when we were in an undercover mission, but never like this. We walked to the bar and asked for a glass of champagne. Roman stood a couple of steps away, right next to the wall and kept an intense watch on the people in the room. 

“You okay?” I asked Riley when she ordered one more glass of champagne.

“I just want to get this over with,” she admitted and for a split second I saw a bit of worry on her face. I looked around in the room and I got an idea. I stood up and extended my hand to her. “Can I have this dance?”

For a split second she let Artemis slip away and she smiled at me the same way she did that morning but then she got serious again. She took my hand and I led her to the dance floor where only two more pairs were dancing. I wanted to dance with her since the day I saw that stupid Hastings put his hands on her at in Lyon. The music wasn’t as hypnotic as that, but the violins started to fasten up for the rhythm of tango. In the corner of my eye I could see the two other couples sit down as the music was no longer good for slow dancing. And yet for us it was perfect. 

“I didn’t know you could dance like this,” she admitted. 

“I have to do a lot of things,  _ Miss Artemis _ , to ensure the success of my missions,” I replied. “What about you, where did you get these moves?”

And indeed she had some. She was a perfect dancer and if we weren’t in the middle of a kind of mission surrounded by strangers, who were staring at us like we were some sort of performance, I would have already pushed her to a wall and kissed her senseless. But for now I had to settle for admiring her figure and forget about everything else. When the song ended, there was silence for a second but then people started clapping. We bowed and were about to go back to the bar when a man started applauding louder than everyone together. He was the tallest in the room and also the biggest in every sense. He didn’t need bodyguards, that was for sure. In the next moment Roman showed up next to us, which only assured me: we were standing in front of Mr Martinez.

“That was really passionate, my darlings, I almost felt like I was intruding on your moment,” he said. “My name is Mauritio Martinez, and if I am not mistaken you are the famous Miss Artemis?” she took Riley’s hand and laid a kiss on top of it. “Just as your name, you possess the beauty of a goddess. And this must be your escort, Mr Tesla, am I right?” We shook hands. 

“It is a very charming party you have here, Mr Martinez but we came a long way and I think we have some matters to discuss,” Riley took the lead and I couldn’t stop admiring. She definitely didn’t need me for this job, but I was glad to play an accessory escort, as long as I got to keep my eyes on her. “Shall we?”

“Fierce, I like it,” Martinez said and gave her an acknowledging nod. “Alright, let’s go to the study.”

We walked into a small, dark brown room which was like a miniature library. He took a seat behind a huge mahogany table and waved to us to take a seat in front of it. Roman stayed on foot behind us, and so did another servant right next to the other door of the room. 

“I have heard a great deal about you, Artemis,” he started. “You have quite the reputation, and let’s say I am very much intrigued.”

“That is very flattering, Mr Martinez,” Riley played her role so perfectly but I could see she was determined to make it as quick as possible. “And any other day I’d love to tell you about my previous, let’s say projects, but right now I am here for a certain deal.”

“As I already told Leland, I am sorry but I cannot give him what he wants,”  _ we have an agreement? My ass!  _ So we were right, Leland was lying. I shot a murderous look to Roman, who kept his eyes on Martinez. 

“May I ask why?” While I almost exploded, Riley kept her cool and went along with the scene. She was right earlier, our specialty was improvising, and that’s what she did.

“I am afraid he has lost his touch,” the man in front of us said and leaned into his seat. Riles mirrored his movement, leaned back and put her hands on the arms of the chair. She looked like an ice queen in a dress made of fire sitting on her throne, and it definitely made me feel dizzy. “Many of us who had been watching Leland and supporting him think that the last year has proven, he is no longer in control of the situation he created. And I don’t like putting my bets on a horse that is nor going to win, if you understand what I mean. Although I have to admit if he could get you to work for him, maybe I should reconsider. Of course if you are who you say you are, miss.”

Riley gave him a wide smile but it was so cold, so tempered I wouldn’t have been in Martinez’s place. She was out for a hunt and he was the prey. She knew well enough what Martinez’s words meant and now we both knew why Leland sent us here. It was a power play, he wanted to prove to this man and I assumed by him to many others that he was still the head of Codex and he had to be taken seriously. With the help of a woman like Artemis37, Leland had a weapon in his hand that they couldn’t just shrug off. But first she needed a demonstration. She put her hand out, as if she was ordering something and the man at the door immediately gave a laptop to her. Martinez watched the scene with pure amusement, while Roman stepped closer to watch what she was doing. I couldn’t take my eyes off her face to look at what she was doing. After a minute she looked back up at Martinez.

“Mr Martinez if I am not mistaken your 25th anniversary with your wife is coming up next month, right?” she asked the corner of her mouth curled up into a vicious smile. Martinez said yes and took a sip from his drink.  _ Oh that smile is not going to last, sir… _ “She is a very beautiful woman, almost as beautiful as the redhead in your suite in La Casa in 367. She seems very eager to see you.” She turned the computer around so he could now see a live feed of a woman lying on his bed. Martinez put down his drink, less amused as before. Riley turned back the computer with a satisfied smile. “Josefa, lovely name, but I was wondering is your charm or your 25.76 million dollors on a Cayman offshore account that appeals to her?” She turned around the screen again so Martinez could see she had access to all of his money. “Oh, wait, sorry it is only 25.75 now, what a generous offer to send 1 million to this charity...”

Martinez stood up immediately, and I saw the guy at the door pull out a gun and point it at Riley. I was about to launch out of my seat when Riley stood up.

“I don’t like to be threatened, Mr Martinez, so I suggest you tell your man to stand down or I might accidentally hit the enter and send all your money to an account no one will ever be able to find but me, and at the same time put your beautiful  _ love _ videos with Josefa not just to your wife but every person you have ever met and worked with.”

“Max, put the gun down.”

“I knew you and me understood each other perfectly,” she said and closed the laptop then threw it on the table. “Now that we have cleared every kind of misunderstanding, what was your answer about the deal with Leland?”

“Tell him to meet me at the Pier, Friday 2 pm, he can get it himself,” he was swallowing hard under the intense stare Rile gave him. I didnt’ envy the man, for sure.

“That is wonderful! In this case, thank you so much for your hospitality but we have a long road ahead of us. Good night!” She moved to the door which was already opened by Roman when Mr Martinez called after her.

“I have heard about your talent, Artemis, but nobody warned me about your ruthlessness,” he said maybe with just a hint of admiration. Riley’s face lightened up with a smile that made my knees weak.

“That’s because not many lived to tell the tale,” with a wicked wink she started walking and I followed her. After what I saw that night, I knew I was the luckiest man to be on Riley’s side not opposite her because this woman could have ended me in a second. And I might have even enjoyed it.

🖇🖇🖇

The same way as we got to the party, we got some sleeping gas on the way back too, which was a good idea. By the time we got back the clock showed it was almost midnight. Riley woke up a minute later than me when I got out of the car. Roman waved to us and he helped us find our room in the labyrinth of doors. 

“I’m going to inform Leland about tonight, you go and rest,” he said and then as if it was painful for him to admit he continued. “You were incredible tonight, Riley, I mean it. Leland is going to be very happy.”

She gave him a look that could be translated as:  _ I don’t give a fuck if he’s happy or not, piss off _ . And I couldn’t agree more. He took the message and left. Inside the room, Riley kicked off her shoes and started ranting.

“I am so fucking sick of people pointing guns at me,” she was almost yelling. “I swear as soon as this is over, I am kicking Martinez’s ass!”

“It looked like you already kicked him tonight, at least metaphorically,” I said and loosened my tie. 

“Oh, that was nothing.. it was such a low trick even I am embarrassed by it,” she huffed on. 

“What I saw was amazing,” I admitted and took a step closer to her. “You looked like you were about to destroy him, and he was scared as hell, you could hear, even Roman saw it… I swear I have never seen anything like you before!”

A light fired up in her eyes as she moved forward, one of her hands grabbing my tie. I knew we were probably watched or at least there was one wire to listen to everything we said or done but I couldn’t care less.

“You surely didn;t have much to do tonight,” she noted and started pulling my tie until our lips almost touched. “ I am not entirely convinced if you can deal with my orders or not,” she played on. “I might need a demonstration from you to see what those famous MacGyver hands can do.”

“I might have some ideas…” I said my voice deeper than ever, thoughts racing in my head. 

“Good, me too,” she replied and she let go of my tie, turned around and pulled her long hair out of the way. “You can start with the zipper.” I knew what game she was playing and hell I was about to go all in. I pulled the zipper slowly, while I left light kisses on her bare shoulder and neck. I could hear her breathing quicken and felt as she pushed back into my chest, wanting to close the limited space between us until it was nothing. 

“Done, next?” I asked between kisses when her dress was fully open on the back.

“If I remember correctly you said my dress was distracting,” she whispered when she turned around. “What do you wanna do about that?” She looked me so deep in the eye like she wanted to see my soul, knowing if it was on fire. 

That was all I needed from her. I kissed her so hard she had to grab my tux to stay on her foot. I put my arms around her waist, sliding them under the dress touching every bit of her skin. I couldn’t get enough, she was intoxicating. I pushed her backwards until we hit the table. I grabbed her right under her ass and put her on it, her legs were crossed around my waist now not letting me go anywhere. Like I could have ever escaped here spell on me… No fool would have ever wanted that. She pushed down my tux, and tugged at my shirt until I was half naked. Her hands moved slowly on my skin, trying to memorise it like it was a keyboard, and as soon as she learned how to use it, I was a gone man for sure. My mouth left hers and started to leave a trail on her neck. She freed her arm from the long sleeve of her dress and grabbed my belt. I opened my eyes to look at her and the hunger I saw in her eyes was nothing less than mine. We wanted this for so long, there was no way to deny it. I pulled her in for a kiss again while my hands mapped up her thighs, slowly pushing up her dress. She didn’t wear a bra which made my life a lot easier because my hands were so shaky now I would have spent tortuous minutes getting rid of it. Now that she was almost naked I could leave kisses on more and more parts of her body. She did the same, until I decided to show her exactly how capable my hands were. When she felt where I was headed she pulled back to lock her eyes with mine. She was waiting for me, and as soon as my fingers found the right angle and spot she threw her head back. It didn’t take too long before I heard her start repeating my name.

“Mac, oh my… Maaac!” and with every sigh that left her mouth I felt more in love than ever. When she finally came down from her high, she looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes. I gave a quick peck on her lips.

“What do you say, did I pass the test?” I asked mischievously. 

“It’s a very good start but I also heard you are a man of many talents, Mr MacGyver,” she said, reminding me not to play with her fire, because I can easily get burned. However, right now that was exactly what I wanted. She pushed me away from her and jumped down from the table. 

She stepped out of her dress along with her panties leaving it on the floor where it was supposed to be for the foreseeable future. She was now fully naked in front of me and Martinez’s words echoed in my head: the beauty of a goddess. It was the most accurate way to describe the vision she was. She took my belt out of my pants and didn't stop until we were even. She pushed me on the bed and I was more than happy to give her the opportunity to get back at me for my previous round. She tortured me the same sweet way, leaving marks of her love everywhere on my body, until I couldn’t help myself anymore. I took her and turned us around. I was now on top her giving her a kiss which she answered with such passion that was surely going to be on my mind for the next couple of decades. A whisper left her mouth I had been playing with her breasts. She looked down at me, her eyes were giving me clear command mixed with the desperation of need. I knew the feeling all too well. I had to feel her close, and even though there was nothing left between our bodies I still wanted her closer. I happily followed her order and she was more than ready for me. We caught a steady rhythm almost immediately, as all those years saving each others’ lives have sync our bodies together. After a while our pace got faster and faster, she was already leaving marks on my back, and my kisses were surely getting harder and harder as we both reached our end. She let out a scream and I never heard anything more hypnotising as she said my name, not much later her name left my mouth as a prayer, and I collapsed next to her. She laid a kiss on my neck as she moved closer and we fell asleep with the only thought that ever mattered: you and me finally becoming us. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe we are getting there, guys, TWO more chapters and it is finished!! I know for sure that the next chapter is still Riley but about 10? It is going to be a special one so I am still figuring out how to do that.  
> As an exam is coming up for me it might take longer to write the chapters, but they are coming don't worry!  
> I can't really tell you how much it means when you leave all thos comments and tweets, it is insane! I just... I really love you all, guys an thank you for reading my story!  
> Without any more ranting, enjoy this chapter let me know if you liked/hated it here or on Twitter (y'all already know @whatsabex)  
> LOVE YA!!
> 
> PS. Don't worry even if this is over, I already have a solid idea for the next one titled Poison and Wine, all I can say is Villian Riley is coming, baby!

**Chapter 8**

**Riley**

If I wanted to be really honest, I did dream about us this way. I had a couple of nights after I moved from Mac’s house when I could barely stop my mind, I just kept going back to what he might have been doing. I tried a number of things to stop myself: I kept on coding new programmes, watch everything and anything I could find, talked to Bozer for hours but when it was time to go to bed, and now it was only me and my thoughts It was hard not to imagine how he would have felt like next to me. Sometimes I could even remember how the heat radiated from his body when he saved me in Germany from being squashed by a bomb. How it calmed every nerve in my body to be in his arm. How his breathing sent shivers through my body as he hid his face in my neck. Sometimes my imagination went further than I could have allowed myself. Only a couple of times.

But nothing could be compared to the reality. Waking up next Mac, while his arms were still hugging me tightly, our naked bodies pressed together, his steady breathing like an untouchable blanket around me… it was something I could have never imagined properly. I kept my eyes closed for a long time after waking up just to replay the previous night in my head. And oh what vivid memories did I have! Every part of my body was lit on fire just by the thought of what we did, and how incredible it was. I would have never in seven lives could have guessed that one day him and I will be at Codex base, and not caring about who hears us just give all of ourselves to each other.  _ Oh my God, the bug! Leland had to hear everything! _ Before I could have started panicking Mac shifted next to me, waking up slowly. But I still didn’t open my eyes. A part of my mind, still skeptical, thought this was not real, it couldn’t be. I must have died after Murdoc shot me and this, being with MAc, hearing him say I love you… It couldn’t be reality. So I did everything I could to keep my eyes shut and stay in the safety of my dreams. But then Mac laid a kiss on my forehead.

“Good morning,” he said when I took my chance and opened my eyes. He was smiling at me so brightly, I didn’t even need the sunshine anymore. I had my own. 

“Morning,” I replied and a second later he closed the gap between us and kissed me deeply, while his hands slowly travelled south on my body. Okay, maybe I didn’t dream last night. When I moved away to look him in the eye, I saw multiple hickies on his neck. Oh, I definitely remember doing those!

“How are you feeling?” he asked with a lot of playfulness in his eyes. 

“I am a bit exhausted, have no idea, why,” I answered and gave him a quick kiss. “But seriously, last night…”

“Was definitely something we have to repeat, like a lot of times,” he said, still drawing circles on my thighs that were now around his waist. 

He kissed me again and suddenly every other thought in my brain disappeared. I was now on my back, he turned us over without me even noticing it, until I felt his weight pushing me into the bed, my legs instinctively crossing around his waist. How was I ever going to do anything else than be absolutely mesmerized by this man? How was I supposed to focus on anything in the outside world when he kept looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes, his mouth whispering my name like it was his favourite word in the whole universe? How could I have ever lied to myself that we were just friends? This moment, his voice in mind my saying  _ I love you  _ all over and over again made sure I never forgot about how this was all reality now. I had to get used to it, but after what we had been through, I was not willing to waste any more time of our lives on fighting an already lost battle. I was irrevocably in love with Angus MacGyver and no hacks, no bad guys and no lies could have stopped us now.

But there were some bad guys still out there in the way of our happiness and I had to force myself, and obviously make Mac focus on this issue, too.

“Mac,” I pulled away. He gave me a weak  _ hm _ and kept on kissing my neck and every possible part of my body he just got access to. And at this point, he had clearance to go to every god damn bit of me. “Mac, hey, I think we should go and have a shower…”

“Sounds like a pretty good idea to me,” he said and rolled off of me. He put on his boxer and moved to my side of the bed when we saw a piece of paper at the door. He looked at me suspiciously and went for it. “Congratulations on your deal with Mr Martinez, very good job. Jacobson is going to be at your corridor all day, as soon as you are ready he’ll show you the cafeteria. After recharging, he’ll escort Miss Davis to the tech centre so you can help our team out in a couple of issues. Mr MacGyver feel free to join her or spend your day in your room, but I am afraid no other parts of the base are yet available for you. Have a nice day.” Mac read out loud the letter. It seemed today we had no chance to talk to Leland about what exactly happened with Martinez. It was a wise decision because I had a couple of not too nice words to him about setting us up. 

“Great, let’s get to the shower then eat something,” I said again. 

Mac followed me eagerly into the bathroom. I turned on the shower again as we did earlier to make sure no one heard us. Mac was right behind me, already leaving a kiss on my bare shoulder so when I turned to face him it didn’t take him much effort to capture my lips, too.  _ This is going to be a lot harder than… oh god… _ I couldn’t even take a breath when we were already under the warm water. He pushed me hard to the back door of the shower. The water was getting warmer but it was nothing compared to the fire burning inside us. For a minute or so I let myself enjoy this but then I pushed him away. Let’s say it was one the most challenging tasks I ever had to do. 

“Mac… listen… Mac, I am serious, come on,” I said and finally he had the decency to stop. But then he ran his finger through his wet hair and we were back at square one because I couldn’t stop myself. He was simply irresistible. The hot water turned my sense up with three notches, every tiny kiss he laid on me, every caress hit differently and a lot more brutally. I whispered his name which was like dangling a red flag in front of a bull, he pushed himself harder to my body. Not much later I felt his hand carefully lift my right leg, right under my knee and positioned himself until he found the right angle. He earned a not too ladylike word from me along with a bunch of deep sighs and with the constant repetition of his name until I finally hit my end. It took him only two more thrusts two join me on my ecstasy ride. Yeah, we definitely didn’t need improvement in this area but the possibilities of what we could till do kept me breathing heavily even after we were both finished and now both of our hands were intertwined on the glass door of the shower.

It is true what they say: third time’s a charm, and for the third time I finally could get his attention and force my mind from wandering back to what we could do instead of find a way to bring down Codex… again. “Hey, we have to focus, okay? Believe me as soon as we are out of here, we can get back to us…”

“Us..,” he said with the cutest smile a grown up man can put on. “I like the sound of that. Okay, you are right. So any ideas what he might want from you in the tech centre?”

“Honestly, no clue?” I admitted with frustration. “But he was very interested in my ability to hack the big ones earlier, so I guess he is not planning on getting into the files of the LAPD. But it doesn’t even matter. If he allows me to go anywhere near a computer I am not going to think twice…”

“Riles don’t do anything until we come up with a plan,” he said and he only managed to get a not very nice look from me. 

“Says Mr I Have Half A Plan But It’s Actually Less,” he pretended to be hurt but then with a half smile nodded for me to go on. “I am not saying I am going to go on full hacker mode immediately but we have to be ready to use any and every chance we get. And we have to do something before Friday because whatever Leland wants has to be important enough for him to arrange this whole “kidnapping and blackmailing us to join Codex” mission. That leaves us less than 48 hours, Mac… So I think we should go and see what we are up against.”

“You’re right, let’s finish this,” Mac nodded in agreement and stepped out of the shower then handed me a towel. “I’ll go with you, try to see what they have in this base, maybe find a lead to what they are planning or an exit.”

He gave me a quick kiss before we left the shower to get dressed. Jacobson was indeed waiting ro us to show us around: which meant from our room go straight left and at the end of the corridor there was the main room form where most of the important parts of the base could be reached like the cafeteria, the garden, the medical section, a school even and different other closed doors that we had no access card to. Obviously. The tech centre could only be reached with the supervision of Jacobson so I had to make sure I was not behaving suspiciously around him, while I saw Mac memorize everything around us. He had this crazy thinking look in his eyes. 

“Miss Davis, my name is Victor, and I am the leader of the tech centre,” a young figure came up to me and immediately started talking. “I was told to introduce you around. We heard a lot about you, and can’t wait to learn more from you.”

I shot a confused look to Mac but he was as clueless as I was. Jacobson caught us and gave a simple explanation.

“You couldn’t really think, Leland wanted you to do all the work here alone. He wants you to teach the tech group as much as you know so…” he was looking for the right way to say it. “So your help wouldn’t be needed all the time.”

From the corner of my eye I saw Mac’s face turning red and that killer look in his eyes told me he understood perfectly what Jacobson meant. I was here to teach all I knew to these people, possibly find the next Artemis and when my “help” was no longer required… well, it only depended on the creativity of Murdoc and Andrews to kill me and Mac. One more reason to make sure we ended this whole Codex issue once and for all. 

“Alright, well first I have to see how much you already know,” I said and put on a rather strict face,while my brain was running through all possibilities while the tech group that barely consisted of 12 people watched me intently. I have started to check the encryption they have used to solve the tasks I gave them to see oif any of them thought outside of the box, knew some bits and tricks. But it seemed like Leland was lacking the talent in his followers now. And that explained why he needed me. Even if I wanted to teach these people half of what I knew, it might have taken months if not years so Leland couldn’t have gotten rid of me and Mac so easily. Maybe he was hoping by keeping us here, making us to work for him we would change our minds? Well, that was never going to happen. I was asking different questions from them testing each and every one of them when Leland walked in. He just stood there 2 feet away from Mac putting his back to the wall. I tried to focus but my eyes wandered back to him from time to time even though he didn’t say a thing. We were there for around more than two hours when I was about to give them a demonstration task to hack a database when he finally spoke.

“Let’s do a real challenge, shall we?” he asked and I looked at him all confused. “Maybe the Phoenix servers?” Mac and I looked at each other and I saw him almost taking a step forward when I shook my head. There was no need. If he wanted to hack the Phoenix, that was exactly what we were going to do.

“Okay,” I sighed. “But let’s see which one of you can do it without help,” I gave some orders, moved a step back and waited. For a long time I didn’t even breathe. My eyes were scanning the room and waited which one of them get to the main door the fastest, only three of them managed to get through the first and second fire walls so now all of us paid attention to them. “Alright guys, one more step, what are you going to do.” Two of them barely had a clue which seemed to bother Leland because for a split second I could see him give them an angry stare but then the last girl, Alice answered my question correctly. Well, almost correctly. “Okay then, let’s see how you do that.”

One minute later all she was in and all Phoenix files started popping up on her screen. Leland and Jacobson stepped closer just to see as all the projects Phoenix ever worked on seemingly opened up in front of them. Alice turned to me with pride in her eyes. Poor girl, she could have done more, she barely seemed 20 and she definitely had a talent for this job. But she still had a long way to go, and Codex was definitely not the right way. 

“May I have a copy of those, Miss Sanchez?” Leland asked and looked at Alice. 

“Yes, sir, as you wish,” she said and started downloading all the files. 

“I think that is enough for today,” I turned to Leland who was still watching the screen. “I was wondering if we could have a talk about this part of our deal after I had a chance to eat something?”

“Certainly, Miss Davis,” he said and took the drive from Alice. “I can see we are going to have a very fruitful cooperation in the future, well done, Riley.”

This was the first time he called me on my first name, and definitely the last one. He shot one look at Mac who was staring at me with confusion on his face. If I didn’t know him better I might have thought he was pissed but no, he was just trying to put the pieces together. Well, I wasn’t surprised he couldn’t. After Leland left the room, we said our goodbyes to the group and left the room. Mac was walking next to me deep in his thoughts so I just slipped my hand into his. He looked up and I gave him a weak smile sending him a silent signal:  _ It’s going to be alright, everything is going to be okay. _

He barely closed the behind me I have already made my way into the bathroom and opened the shower. I turned back to him.

“What the hell happened, Riles?”

“Mac, listen to me, everything is going to be,” he was not very convinced but stopped in front of me. “Listen, do you remember what time we got to Martinez’s party? There was a clock behind the bar, what time was it?”

“I.. I don’t know around half past nine, why?” He looked at me as I lost my mind. Well at least he got a taste of what it felt like working with him most of the time. 

“Good so that means we had around 2,5 hours to get to the mansion. Roman must have been going with less than 70 mph not to draw any unnecessary attention from the police. Now that leaves us in a maximum 150 miles area from Beverly Park.” I looked up at Mac who was still just staring. I sighed and stopped to explain to my genius what I figured out. “The party that Martinez hosted was at Beverly Park in Beverly Hills. I knew I have seen that mansion a couple of times and I just realised it’s the same place that Aubrey used to talk about all the time,” I could one second of bitterness in Mac’s eyes just by mentioning Aubrey. Yeah, the exes topic definitely needs a bit of a talk if… no, when we get out of here. “He was obsessed with how it was an authentic Italian village encompassing that’s why it stuck in my head. So if Roman was not driving faster…”

“Than the maximum 70 mph on highways then we shouldn’t be further from that mansion tha 150 miles. Which is good news. We just have to send a signal to the team to find us here, grab Leland when they come and get the job done. Now could we just go back to the topic of why you let hell knows a 17 years old girl hack our servers?”

“Because that was our signal,” I said with a proud smile on my face. “The top file Alice opened, Titan? That is a fake project I created. Around a month ago me and one of the technicians, Luke were helping out DARPA with a project on how to create fake background servers for federal systems so if anyone tries to hack them they redirect them and in the meantime they activate a geolocater. DARPA quit the project saying it is too time consuming but since you had been on a vacation with Desi…” It was his turn to look a bit shy because of how much he didn’t notice while he was focusing on Desi. “So we had a lot of time and I needed something to focus on so I created a prototype and installed it in our system. As soon as Alice reached the last firewall and she tried to access our data Titan activated, redirected her to a lot of fake data, that is what Leland is reading right now. As soon as he opened any file the locater showed up on the Phoenix radar, now we just have to hope someone is actually looking for us.”

Mac kept staring at me, mouth agape with admiration. As soon as he got all the information processed he smiled at me widely and kissed me.

“You are amazing, have I ever said that, Riley Davis?” he asked when he pulled away.

“You might have mentioned something like that but it’s always nice to hear it,” said and gave him a very brief kiss. We needed to be careful not to get caught up in each other because now we were on the clock. “If someone is watching then they should need more than a couple of hours to get here.”

“Believe me, they are watching,” he calmed me down then he gave me a frown. “At least Hastings definitely is… He was following you like a trained dog, never taking his eyes off of you so yeah he is definitely getting your signal.”

“Angus MacGyver,” all of my concerns suddenly seemed lot less interesting. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. “Oh my, you are jealous of Alex?”

“What? No. No. No.” He tried to say it three different ways, none of them being more convincing than the other. I started laughing so loudly it echoed from the wall of the bathroom. So everything I have seen from him since Alex joined us was jealousy? This was way too entertaining now that I knew he loved me. “Oh, you think it’s funny? Alright….” He grabbed me from my eyes and pushed me to the wall and kissed me until I forgot what I was laughing at so hard. Oh Lord, I even forgot my own name for a while. “That’s better,” he said with a smirk on his face. He was way too cocky now that he knew what kind of effect he had on me.”

“You are going to pay for this, just so you know,” I said with fake anger in my voice. How could I have been angry at him? “You better get prepared, Mr MacGyver, because you and me will have some issues to solve when we are out of here.”

Everytime I said  _ Mr MacGyver _ something lit up in his eyes like he remembered the same thing as I did: our first time meeting. Right now it seemed like it was a whole different life, and we definitely weren’t the same people. But even back then, I knew there was something in this man that was making me levitate toward him. Hell, he made me join a secret organization. But when he took off my cuffs with a goddamn paperclip without me even noticing, I was deep in trouble already. That part of my mind which couldn’t get enough of him played the thought of getting handcuffs but this time on him under very different circumstances.

“What do you have in that pretty mind of yours, Miss Davis?” he asked me after I got lost in my own thoughts. I was partly still back at the handcuffs. “Are you blushing?”

“Do you remember when we first met?” I asked quickly.

“Like I could forget,” he laughed and pulled me to his chest by my waist. “You put Jack into his place with one sentence. Not many people can do that. You were clearly a talented person on paper but it was never enough to prepare me for what you really turned out to be: a beautiful, smart, fierce woman,when you asked me what do I do exactly… Oh you were not messing around and that lit up a danger sign in my head, you better believe it. I just wish it didn’t take me so long to realise how deep I have already fallen since that day.”

The fact that he felt it that instant connection just made me love him even more, if that was even possible. 

“Alright, we will have plenty of time to talk about all of this as soon as we are safely out of this base,” I took a deep breath and stepped away from him. “Now we are going to go eat something and meet Leland. I asked to talk to him so we can be near when Phoenix gets here and make sure he doesn’t get away this time. Are you ready?”

“Let’s do it!”

We went straight to the cafeteria to eat something afterwards. He held my hand the entire time we were walking, sometimes squeezing it to make me relax. I was eating something without even paying attention, my eyes wandering around, checking all the people who were there. Alice from the tech centre met my eyes and waved to me. I waved back to her, and a little bit of guilt hit my heart. She didn’t seem someone who was a big supporter of killing innocent people. I wasn’t even sure if she knew Leland's big plans. I just hoped when Phoenix finally shut down Codex for good this time, there wouldn’t be any unnecessary casualties. Mac kept his eyes on the clock behind me. we have spend a bit more than an hour in our room, and now we were sitting there not really eating anymore just talking about things that could not bring too much attention. Definitely didn’t mention anything that would have given a tip to Leland about our plans since it was 100 % sure there were wires all over the place. According to our calculations it shouldn’t have taken more than 3 hours for Phoenix to find us, at tops, so when we already spent 2,5 hours I nodded to Mac to go talk to Leland. 

Jacobson walked us to his study and then left us alone to go inside. The door opened and Roman stood in front of us. Great. 

“Miss Davis, please come in,” Leland said. “Take seat. I have been going through a couple of these projects and I am very curious, I have never even heard about any of these plans.”

“Isn’t that the whole point of hacking other’s files? To know about things you didn’t hear about before?” I asked with an edge in my voice. 

“I suppose you’re right. But you see, Roman here, worked with your belated aunt, MacGyver, and allow me to say I am very sorry for your loss…” Mac grabbed the arm of the chair he was sitting in with all of his might. I put a hand on his to calm him a bit. “But he thinks these are not actual projects of yours. Now I have been wondering if it might just be right.”

I looked at Roman standing just a few feet away from us. His right hand was ready on his un holster, one tiny signal, a nod and we both were dead. I knew that already. However, all we needed was a little time so I improvised as usual.

“Wel if he is so damn smart about hacking other’s servers why doesn’t he do it? You were there, you saw  _ I  _ didn’t do anything, it was Alice Sanchez. So if you don’t believe me that is your decision I have kept my part of the bargain.”

Leland sat back in his chair, crossed his hands in front of his mouth and stared at us, clearly trying to figure out who was lying. I could almost see him wave at Roman to shoot when the alarm bells started going off. 

“What is this?” he asked from Roman who looked just as clueless as he was. In a split second everybody started moving. I grabbed the little statue on Leland’s table to hit him with it, Mac jumped out of the chair to snatch away Roman’s gun before he could have used it. Leland looked at me as if I told him the Earth was flat. “Should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“The feeling is mutual,” I said and hit him hard on the head. He fell to the ground. Mac was still fighting with Roman but at least he was now unarmed, his gun lost somewhere in the dark now that the electricity was shut down. I started looking for the gun, my hand touching everything it could, when I heard a click.  _ No, no, nooo.  _ One shot in the dark, but two men on the ground. “Mac?” I asked with desperation. 

“Yeah, I am okay,” he stood up from the ground. The safety system turned on a bit of light so I could see that Roman was bleeding out on the floor, while on my other side Leland laid unconscious. “Let’s take him and get the hell out of here.”

He grabbed him from one side, me on the other and we started finding our way out. Since we barely knew two or three corridors in this building the best thing we could do was go after the people shouting. Somewhere in the distance shots were fired and I hoped it wasn’t one of our own shooting at the unarmed civilians. The noises were getting louder and louder, more gunshots filling up the moments of silence. 

“Look, Mac, the cars!” It seemed we finally found the garage of the bae, perfect, we just needed one car and to get the hell out there. 

He read my mind and hurried to one of the jeeps that was closest to us. He threw Leland on the backseat, grabbed something that looked like a rope and tied up his hands and feet. People ran fast past us not seeing in the dim light. 

“Get in the car,” he said and I was about to do as he said when a gunshot just missed my head. I jumped back immediately and hid behind the car. “You okay?”

“Yeah…” my voice was weak of the sudden fear that hit me, but the shot missed that was good news. “I swear to God if we get out of here alive, I am going on a vacation somewhere silent and far away where no one would ever shoot at me!” 

“What do you think about fishing?” Mac asked while he was getting things out of the car finally coming up with a Machack to save our asses. “I know a good spot in the forest, no one ever goes there, and we are not going to be shot, expect if a sociopath finds us.”

“Sounds like a perfect first date, just get us out of here,” for a split second his hands stopped, grabbed mine and sent me an encouraging smile then got back to playing with his… “Mac, what the hell are you doing?”

“It’s kinda like a gun but without the bullets, I only found some golf balls so I’m going to use those. I cover you, you get in the car start the engine and we bust out”

The plan sounded just as solid as most of the plans that Mac concuts in the middle of a gun fight. He stood up and took his aim to get out one of the shooters who was going around in the almost darkness. I started running to the driver’s side. I was too focused on getting into the car to see that someone followed us, until it was too late. Roman kept one of his hands on his bleeding wound while with the other he pointed his gun at me and I froze. He pulled the trigger at the same time as Mac grabbed me to his chest and we fell down on the ground. One second later another shot was fired but this time, the target was Roman. He fell on the floor, eyes still open looking at me while in the middle of his forehead he had a hole. 

“Mac! Riley!” I heard shouts from where the second shot came but all I could do was stare at Mac. 

We did it! Phoenix got our signal, we got Leland in the car, Roman was dead and the already weak remains of Codex were now scattered around. We both started laughing and stayed lying on the ground. It was way too much action for us for a while.

“Now we can go fishing,” I said and we were laughing so hard my ribs started hurting, I thought I possibly had a couple of them broken. I put a hand on it and started sitting up as the voices approached. My hands felt sticky and warm as I put my back to the side of the car. I looked down just to find my whole chest covered in blood and now my hands too. I looked at Mac still lying on the floor but his laugh turned into have breathing and coughing.

“No, Angus MacGyver, don’t you dare!” I fell to my knees next to him looking for the wound but I could barely see anything in the dark. “You hear me? Mac! Mac, please, don’t do this! We had a deal! You owe… me… a date…” 

By the time Alex and Desi found us my voice was less than a whisper. It was now just a string of prayers, swear words and thoughts mixed together while I was crying on Mac’s chest. All the things we said to each other played in my mind:  _ I got you… I am here for you… You are never alone… I want to be the one who is always there for you… I love you… _ The future, that we both awaited and dreamed about while we were holding each other, was suddenly slipping through my fingers leaving me with loneliness I never felt before. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here we go! The one but last chapter in this incredible journey. I can't believe it to be honest! All the comments and kudos, and tweets are just hitting my feelings. I am so damn greateful for you guys, you can't imagine.  
> Now this chapter is not about action anymore: our lovebirds had their fair share of torture, almost dying and suffering so I just let them finally get the happinessthey deserve... and I also made myself cry in the process.   
> Those od you who doesn't know we sentenced today to Riley Davis Appreciation day on Twitter so if you didn't see it yet, check it out it's incredible! 
> 
> Wihtout any more unnecessary ranting, please enjoy this fluff! Love ya xx
> 
> PS Those who watch the One Chicago franchise, you're welcome.

**Chapter 9**

**Riley**

_ I couldn’t have done it without you. _ He looks at me and I feel happiness spread through me.  _ You got me.  _ I am lost but my heart is slowly getting into the right direction.  _ You’re never alone.. Neither are you.  _ He says, hands intertwined and I cannot lie anymore.  _ Why did you do it? _ He asks and I cannot say what my heart keeps shouting.  _ I don't want to see you hurt.  _ And he has no idea how much simply seeing him hurts me.  _ All I needed was her. Only her.  _ He says while his eyes are seeing into my soul.  _ You’re never going to be alone… because I love you.  _ Hi words cure all of my wounds like they were nothing.  _ I love you. _ And I can see how he means it, his eyes finally setting me free from the lies I told myself.  _ You are amazing, have I ever said that, Riley Davis?  _ His kiss keeps lingering on my lips even though he is now looking at me. He believes in me. He sees things even I can’t see about myself.  _ You and me, us… I like the sound of that _ . Us… Every word that he says proves I am finally home. But then his hands leave mine. I can’t see where he is.  _ Riles... _ He whispers in the dark. One painful jolt runs through my body. I try to look around again but it’s all darkness. I feel something warm and sticky on my hands. Blood. I look down and now I can see him, lying in front of me, barely breathing.  _ No!  _ I scream louder than ever. A hand tries to pull me away.  _ No!  _ I scream again as his eyes find me and he tries to whisper my name.  _ No!  _ People block my vision, I lose sight of him.  _ No, I can’t… I can’t lose him! Mac! Please, you promised… You said… I would never be alone… No, please! _

“Riley, hey, wake up!” Bozer’s voice finally got through the thick desperation caused by my nightmare. 

“Hey! Anything new?” I asked and my eyes immediately jumped to the hospital bed where Mac was lying. 3 days… And nothing. 

“No. But you were screaming again…” Bozer said and his eyes showed a mix of sadness, helplessness and worry. “Maybe you should talk to someone, you haven't got a good sleep since…”

“I’m fine, Bozer, thanks.” I interrupted him and walked to the bed to sit down on the edge. I took Mac’s hand into mine and squeezed it, silently begging him to come back to me. When he said he didn’t know anything about me for 4 days while I was in the medical and it was the worst torture ever I never would have thought it was this hard. 

“Riley, I know you are worried about him,but Mac’s a fighter and after all you two had been through, believe me he is going to be fine,” he tried reasoning with me. “But you need to get some rest, go home!”

“I go home when Mac comes home,” I stated and there was no room for objection here. 

“Bozer’s right,” Matty stepped into the room. Great, that’s what I needed. “You have been through hell, Riley, and what you need is some peace. Go home.”

“I said no, damn it!” I almost screamed while tears started running down my face. The desperation I felt in my nightmare finally reached me in reality too. I couldn’t bear the thought of… No, don’t even think about it.

“Riley, this is an order!” Matty said again and I was ready to jump from the bed and tell her to fire me if she wants but I am not leaving the room. But then I felt a little pull at my hand.

I looked down on my hand that was now tightly held by Mac’s. My eyes travelled up until I finally saw him smile at me. His eyes were still only halfway open but he was awake and he smiled at me, making me feel like I could finally breathe again. I wasn’t sure if I actually said his name out loud or just whispered it to myself, or if it was more of a sigh filled with relief. Either way, I moved closer to him and cradled his face. 

“Did you just yell at Matty?” he asked with such a wide smile I couldn’t contain my happiness and started laughing. 

“Me? No.” I said innocently and turned to Matty who raised one of her eyebrows but still smiled at me. Yeah, we were good. “You can really take your time. You know that we have been waiting for you for three days?”

“Sorry, I needed some beauty sleep, I was too preoccupied with other activities lately” he smirked at me. Oh, if he wasn't’ hurt already I would have hit him so hard. Bozer let out a quick laugh but one look at him and he stopped.

“Good to have you back, Mac,” Matty stepped closer and gave him a kind smile. “You two are either the smartest people on this planet or you are just stupidly lucky. I don’t know, but I am sure you are going to need a couple of days to rest. Then you can come back to the Phoenix and report to me. I am serious, take as much time as you need.”

She put a hand on my arm before slowly going to the door.

“You know guys, most couples get matching tattoos or keychains… not matching bullet wounds,” Bozer joked and all of us in the room laughed with him. 

It was no secret that our relationship with Mac shifted during the last 2 weeks, But I was too focused on trying not to die and then hoping Mac survives, too I didn’t really pay attention to the others’ reactions. Bozer seemed to be very happy about how things turned out and apparently getting ready to the moment when he can say: Told you it wasn’t just a crush! Matty was harder to read but she seemed genuinely happy. I expected a talk soon about what happened and maybe some tough love and how not to get kidnapped next time but otherwise things were going just fine.

“Okay we are going to inform the doctor that you woke up, Goldie,” Matty said before leaving the room. When Bozer didn’t move she turned back. “I said  _ we _ are going, Bozer, do I look like I have an imaginary friend walking with me? No? Then move!” 

After they had left us alone, I turned back to Mac who was now fully awake. For three days I was like a zombie, just half alive because my heart could only beat when he smiled at me, held my hand, when he was next to me. Without even saying a word, he shifted to the left and gave me enough space to lie down next to him, resting my head on his chest, slowly surrendering to a deep sleep while I watched the sunset through the window.

By the time I woke up again the sun was up again and somebody was already in the room because I had a blanket on me. I didn’t want to wake Mac up, but I always knew he shouldn’t have let me stay and take half of his bed. I moved a little bit further from him. He shifted but didn’t open his eyes so I slid out of bed. I was about to leave the room when Alex came in. 

“Hey!” I greeted him. 

“Oh hi, you’re up!” he smiled at me. I looked over to the couch and saw a book on it and a mug. Alex was the one who brought the blanket and possibly stayed the whole night. Bozer and Matty’s feelings about me and Mac were one thing but Alex was different. I gave him hope, I led him on and now he had to spend the whole week trying to find us and then the entire night watching me sleep in the arms of another man. Wow, I really wasn’t doing well on this front. “Do you need something? Or did I wake you up when I opened the window? It was stuck. I had to force it a bit… sorry.”

“What? Oh, no, I guess I just finally had enough rest,” I answered to calm him down.

“Good, we were getting worried about your nightmare, to be honest,” he admitted. HE was still so kind and caring, we definitely needed to talk so I could apologise to him. “I was about to run out to get something to eat and check on the guys at the Phoenix, you want me to grab you something on the way back? Or should I bring something for Mac?”

“You can grab me a bigger bed because someone took half of it last night,” Mac said from me. I turned around to give him a warning look which only made him smile more mischievously. “Kidding, thank you, Hastings, I’m alright.”

“I am happy to hear that, really,” Alex said and picked up his book, waving to both of us when he left. 

“So no nightmares this time?” Mac asked when we were alone again. I just shook my head because I didn’t want to get into it with him. He had a lot more to focus on then my stupid nightmares. And at the same time my mind kept wandering back to Alex and how I owed him an explanation at least.

“Mac, you know Andrews got a good point when he said honesty is the right way,” I told him. He looked at me not knowing for sure where I was going with this. “Alex deserves to know the truth about what happened. I owe him that.”

“Are you going to electrocute him like Andrews did, too? Because I would love to see that,” Mac commented and even though I hated him for reminding me how we were tortured into admitting our feelings I still laughed at him. I gave him a fake angry look and he put his hands up as signalling he didn’t want to fight. “Just kidding, you know that. Truth is I owe him an apology too but for now I think you should go and talk to him. Don’t worry I am not going anywhere and I’ll be perfectly fine. Although if you make me watch more The Bachelor my brain cells might die.”

I gave him a quick kiss before I hurried after Alex. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be in a rush because I could still catch him in the lobby. 

“Hey, Alex!”

“Riley? Is everything okay? You need something?” He was killing me with his kindness.

“No, I just thought… I could use a coffee and some fresh air. You are up for a walk?”

Thankfully not far from the hospital we could find a good coffee shop and sat down outside to enjoy the warming weather and the peace of not being shot at. For a couple of minutes neither of us said a thing. He was deep in his thoughts and I was trying to find the right words. Even there was none.

“Alex, I owe you an apology,” I started finally. He looked at me confused. “Listen, I promise you this thing between me and Mac, it all… I didn’t mean to lead you on, okay? I didn’t want to make you feel like we had something and then just move on to him. It all happened so fast, a part of me was convinced we are never getting out of Codex alive, not this time, and there is this fear in me that says no matter if we took down Codex what happens next when there is another group of sociopaths trying to kill us… I just didn’t know what to think and I wanted to make sure I didn’t…”

“Riley, hey, Riley, stop it,” Alex interrupted me when he sensed I was spiralling. I put down my coffee and hid my face in my hands. “Listen to me! You have nothing to apologise for. Yes, we flirted and kissed, but you didn’t promise me anything, Riley. And believe it or not I have noticed the way you two looked at each other since the day I walked into the war room. You know it’s kinda my job to read others,” he smiled at me when I finally looked up at him. “I am no fool, I saw how he reacted everytime you and I were in the same room. Only a man in love can act so instinctively. When the two of you got kidnapped Desi and I tried everything. The longer you were gone the harder it was to hope you were still alive but Matty kept saying the two of you always protected each other and you will give a sign just wait. And you did. When I found you crying over him, trying to put pressure on his wound I knew the two of you were part of a whole. What you have with Maci is an incredibly rare thing, Riley, not many people find their best friend and the love of their life in the same person,” he stopped here, a sad smile appearing on his face. “And even those who find it can easily lose it if they don’t pay attention. Believe me. So please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, I just want you to be happy.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. “Alex you are simply perfect: you’re kind, supportive, caring, patient and understanding, and there is no woman who would want to be the one for you. I just hope you find her.”

“I already did,” he looked at me and there was so much sadness behind his eyes I could barely look at him. “I am the living proof of that even if you are lucky enough to find the one you can always screw it up.”

“Your fiance,” it finally hit me. He already told us he was engaged when his sister joined the CIA and yet after everything he didn’t go back? It finally made sense.

“Yes, Paige,” even the way he said her name, his voice soft and loving, showed me he was still much in love. “After what happened with Kate I couldn’t do anything. I spent months with physiotherapy and going to a psychiatrist but nothing seemed to help. She tried so hard and I just kept everything to myself, like I closed a door between us and after a while she gave up. She left and I had no right to stop her.”

“Where is she now?” I asked. 

“She is still in Chicago,” he answered. “We haven't spoken since she moved out but one of my cousins, Matt, works in construction and Paige has an interior design salon so they sometimes work on the same house. He usually calls me to give me an update. You know I took Russ’ offer because I felt I wasn’t home in Chicago anymore. And the funny part is that it’s not about Chicago or Seattle or LA. Everytime Paige called me over to a house she was working on, even if it was a mess, it always felt like home already just because she was in it. She was my home and I drove her away.”

“Maybe, it’s not too late,” I tried. “Did your cousin say she was seeing anyone? Because if she is really so amazing, if she was there for you for so long I doubt she could move on in a couple of months. I think we all make mistakes, Alex, Mac and I are very good at those but eventually if you own up to them and learn from them you can find happiness again. Who knows, maybe Paige feels the same way and she is waiting for you to come home to her. You have nothing to lose, do you?”

For a long minute he was only looking at me like I told him one of those big sciencey explanations Mac usually gives us in the middle of a mission. But then he smiled at me like he finally decided to do the right thing. When I told him I should get back to the hospital to check on Mac he walked me back. We shared one, long hug and then I watched him driving away hoping I gave him the right push to happiness.

“Angus MacGyver, what on Earth are you doing?!” I asked Mac when I saw him dressed up, walking out of his hospital room.

“I don’t know, maybe I am going after my girlfriend to tell her we can finally go home?” he asked and there were so many parts in that sentence that made me freeze. He sensed my sudden shock and walked to me. “I’m sorry, we didn’t really get to talk about it… I mean if you don’t want to put a label on this, or…”

Before he could have said something more stupid than”not putting a label” on the fact that we both loved each other deeply I kissed him. He pulled away with a smile.

“Okay, so I guess that’s a yes? Even though we didn’t really have a date yet?” He made one of those adorable faces only he could make: he looked like a child but with a philosopher’s look in his eyes. 

“Yes, I give you this in advance, but we still go fishing, alright? I need some peace” I answered and took his hand.

“Of course we do! And to answer your initial question, when you left the doctor came and discharged me. I called Bozer. He should be here any minute to drive us home.”

“Great, you can drop me off at my house and I grab some stuff before seeing you,” I tried. This time he froze.

“Nope, you’re coming with me. I have just enough MIT T-shirts for the foreseeable future for you to wear, and if you are a good girl, I even have a special Einstein T-shirt, too,” he bargained so sweetly it was impossible to say no. “But if you decide not to wear any of those, or anything at all, I am fine with that, too.”

“Idiot,” I smacked his unhurt shoulder while rolling my eyes. He had way too much fun with these jokes and everytime I ended up blushing so we needed to do something about this case.

“Yes, yes I am. But at least now I am  _ your _ idiot,” he said and gave me one of his brightest smiles. “Now let’s go home. To our home.”

Little did he know that I was already home: next to him, holding his hand, calling him the love of my life. He was my home.

🖇🖇🖇

Thankfully Bozer didn’t put us through his usual trivia about what happened, how it happened and so on. As soon as we got home… our home, the sound of that was almost magical, Bozer cooked us some dinner and then Mac went to sleep after he took his meds. I stayed awake for a very long time, dreading the nightmares. I tired myself by reading some of Mac’s books or just looking around in his room in general then took my place next to him in bed. It felt so natural like this was supposed to happen since the very first day we met. Maybe it was.

For my biggest relief this time I had no terrible dreams about any of us dying. But on the other hand when I woke up the bed was empty next to me which made my eyes open up immediately. I called out his name but it was barely more than a whisper. Before I could have tried again I heard a loud thump and then something that sounded like an explosion.  _ What the… _ I was just opening the door when I heard Bozer’s voice from the kitchen. Oh, yeah this explained it all. 

“How can you be so lame in the kitchen?” Bozer sounded very pissed. When I finally saw the war zone, what was supposed to be the kitchen, I could understand why. “I really don’t understand, I told you to…”

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Mac elbowed him and then moved to me to give me a quick good morning kiss. 

“Morning, what exactly is happening here?” I asked, half amused and half scared.

“What’s happening?” Bozer looked really pissed. “That genius started doing breakfast alone and when I came he said he wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed.. Which I thought was too cute to not help him, so I told him what to do, turned around for one second and he burned down half the kitchen! So you better take him out of here before I cook  _ him _ for tonight’s special dinner!”

“O- o- okay, come on, let’s go take a look at your bandages,” I suggested and pulled Mac away from Bozer who seemed like he wa about to explode, while Mac kept saying: I only did what he told me to, I just tried some things to speed up the process…

“One of them wants to burn down my grill the other my kitchen! Unbelievable!” I heard Bozer from behind while he tried cleaning up the place. Somehow all of this mess, these two bickering and Mac’s hand around mine made me happier than anything before. I had my family back together and this was all I needed to forget about almost dying, being kidnapped, blackmailed and tortured. 

Thankfully Bozer was never really good at being mad at others, especially if it was Mac and his puppy eyes. One hour after the catastrophe we had some scrambled eggs, toasts, bacon and a lot more food on the table and a content smile on Bozer’s face. While we ate he kept asking about the mission that went sideways, but after the first couple of things we said he immediately switched to the topic of how he called it! Obviously he meant it by that he knew that Mac and I were going to be once together. And I  _ totally _ believed him. After around 5 or 6 jokes he finally told us how happy he was for us, and then things turned a bit more serious. Bozer and Mac didn’t talk for so long, Mac didn’t even know about Leanna yet so after a while I let them alone, went to the kitchen to clean up, and sometimes looked back at them. It was right about time for Mac to return back to us and I hoped these changes did not affect Desi too harshly. Even though Mac said she broke up with him because she realised he was in love with me I still felt bad for her. I sent her a text saying I hope she can Mac it tonight which she responded to with:

_ I am meeting my family this weekend but let’s have a drink when I get back. _

Alex and I were something very new, very short but Desi and Mac were different. It was complicated, intense and long. I couldn’t expect it to go away without any consequences. I was so deep in my thoughts I didn’t even notice when Mac came in, until I felt his hands hugging my waist from behind. He rested his chin on my shoulder and looked at me sideways.

“Is everything okay?” he asked and I smiled at him as a response. Not everything was okay yet, but knowing us I knew they were going to be. “You want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” I admitted and turned around in his embrace. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him. “This is all so…”

“New,” he finished my sentence. “I know, but you and me are still the same old us, Riles, and these feelings are not new either. I have been in love with you for so long it is hard to remember what it was like before. The only thing that is new is that we can show it now. And I don’t know about you but I am more than happy to show the world that the amazing Riley Davis and I are together now.”

“You are right,” I agreed. He didn’t know how much fear I had in me, fear of loss, loneliness and heartbreak. As he didn’t know either how much his words meant to me. Even if I was on the edge of falling, he always found the perfect thing to say to bring me back. To bring me home. Funny how he said I was the one guiding him home, while in reality it was him since the day we met. To make him understand how much he meant to me I gave a long kiss which he responded to with another one, and not much longer I felt him lifting me up until I was sitting on the kitchen counter. 

“I went to the store,” we heard Bozer shout and with a loud thump he closed the door behind himself. We laughed for long minutes before returning to each other’s lips and then to Mac’s… no, to our bed. 

🖇🖇🖇

In the evening we had almost everyone over for an “unprecedented mission report” a Matty called it, and having a drink as we referred to it. Because it was a matter of team work naturally Russ showed up, too, and so did Alex. With Desi being out of town, we spent the night in this patched up group of six. Naturally the first topic was to tell them everything that happened during our adventures as Bozer liked to call them. Even though he seemed very eager to hear about all the teeny tiny details, Mac and I agreed there were a couple of parts that needed to be kept to ourselves. Matty seemed quite proud during the part when we talked about Martinez, and she was certain we could find him and get our hands on whatever him and Leland agreed to exchange. Leland wasn’t very talkative no matter how both Russ and Matty tried, but I didn’t expect more of him. As it turned out most of his followers scattered around and there were no civil casualties, which put my mind to ease. I couldn’t get the picture out of my mind with Alice Sanchez getting shot and dying. Unfortunately, Murdoc and Andrews seemed to be nowhere near the base when the bust happened so those two were still out there living their best lives and that made me stiffen. Mac felt my sudden change of mood and took my hand into his, drawing circles on it to calm me down. 

“Well, I guess it’s my turn then,” Alex said after we all finished our parts of the story. I looked at him curiously, while Matty nodded to him to continue. “I am going back to Chicago tomorrow.”

“What?” both me and Bozer asked it at the same time. 

“I actually took someone’s advice and called back home,” he smiled at me. Now I knew what was happening. “Paige and I are going to give this another shot. In the 37th district there is a place for me already. I know the life of the CPD is going to be a lot less exciting than the last few weeks here, but I think this is exactly what I need,” I was so happy to see him happy. I stood up and went to him to give him a long hug. Bozer followed me and then Mac. They shook hands while deeply staring at each other. I was specifically trained to crack codes but even I could understand the solemn warning coming from Alex, and the promise that Mac made in return. “You know what, now that I am leaving, I just need to know something.”

I was getting prepared for a direct question to me when Alex looked at Russ.

“How on Earth did you find me?”

“I heard about you from a friend, nothing interesting,” Russ smiled and that was exactly how we knew it was an interesting story after all. When we all kept staring at him, he continued the story. “One of the sergeants is a friend of mine and she owed me a favour after I helped her out in a personal matter. So I told her if she knows someone who seems like he or she is losing her way, and she sees wasted potential, give me a call and she did.”

“I can’t believe I am asking this question but what kind of personal favour?” Matty looked at him in a way even the president would have followed her orders. Russ rolled his eyes and continued:

“I had to pretend that I was her fiance for dinner with her father so she could get some kind of financial support from him.”

“No way!” Alex started laughing out loud. “You were one of Trudy Platt’s fake boyfriends? Wow! She is a savage and a real legend.”

“It was a great compliment, just so you know,” Russ said with his ching up. “She only chooses the best of the best which means: handsome and charismatic people.”

“Thank you for your answer, Taylor,” Matty said after she took a deep breath. “This is exactly why I chose for Riley instead of you.”

“Wait, what?” Mac stopped laughing immediately. “What do you mean you chose for Riley? You mean you are still planning on separating the team? after all that happened isn’t it obvious that we work best together?” 

There was a very long and very awkward silence after these questions. Mac looked at me, like he wanted me to say something. And even though I agreed with him, we worked the best together, I couldn’t shrug off the feeling of wanting more than just type on a keyboard. I couldn’t say the words he would have wanted me to say.

“No.” Mac said simply. “I am not willing to let her out of my sight, Matty. We have seen already how much damage it could do for us to work alone. I cannot risk it! And I am sure whoever you chose Jack would not approve to protect Riley.”

“Oh but I do approve!” we heard the response from behind and for a moment I thought I had lost my mind. “You know, Mac, this man Matty chose is actually very strong, trained, wise, handsome and has not only good taste in music and movies but also has excellent sense of humor. So yeah, I definitely like the guy.”

I couldn’t see clearly from all the tears gathering in my eyes when I jumped into Jack’s arms who hugged me so tightly like I was still a little girl, waking up after a very bad dream. Maybe it was a bad dream and now that I woke up I had Mac on my side and Jack to hold me tight. I was just thinking about how he was the only person missing from my family and now here he was. 

“How…? What…? I…” I couldn’t find the right words to make one sentence. But he got me. 

“I’m here, kid, and I am not going anywhere anytime soon, I promise,” he said and I started sobbing harder than before. I wasn’t sure why I was crying. But what I did know for sure was that I wasn’t alone. From the corner of my eye I saw Mac smiling, I heard Bozer whistling in the background, Matty saying _ took you long enough _ while applause filled the air and I was in Jack’s arms. I was lost and now I found myself, my happiness, my love and my family. My everything.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. The very last one guys. It was such a great story, I am 90% happy about how it turned out (I am way too much of a perfectionist).  
> I am very happy I could finish it just before 5x05 comes out because it already breaks my heart to think about Jack being gone. BUT not in here. No,no, in my stories and in my heart Jack Dalton will always have a special place.
> 
> I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me during this fic, I really hope you liked it, and I cannot wait to give you more guys! I wish you all the best and I am sending you lots of love tonight during the episode.
> 
> Without further ranting, enjoy the closing of this fic, let me know what you thought here or on Twitter (@whatsabex).
> 
> Love ya, xx

**Chapter 10**

**Mac**

When I say the next 30 minutes were the most awkward moments of my life I am not lying. After Jack finally let Riley go, he gave me a brotherly hug and then when on to all the other people present. His handshake with Russ was more like a “I heard about you” kind of sign and I could feel Russ immediately started looking for escape plans. Riley quickly introduced Hastings, and Jack gave them a “Should I know about something?” look. After the necessary round of greetings and introductions Jack sat down to tell us that the Kovac case was finally closed. He didn't seem too happy about the fact that it wasn’t exactly him, who found the guy but it meant he could finally come home which was definitely something we all waited for eagerly. Except now we had to sit down with him and tell him about our relationship with Riley. 

After half an hour Russ left in a hurry with a made up excuse. Not much later Hastings stood up too, saying he still needed to pack up his things before his flight back to Chicago left. Riley gave him a long hug and they agreed on meeting for a coffee before he left. The rest of us kept on talking about missions Jack missed. He also asked us about Desi how she fit in, but when we asked about how they met he didn’t give us any explicit answer. He changed the subject to me asking how we were doing with Desi, because according to his latest updates we dated… This could have been the perfect moment to break him the news. But instead of that Bozer decided to catapult before we started. 

One person leaving in such a hurry was not too suspicious, but three after each other? And Jack definitely picked up the signs.

“Alright, what is going on here?” Jack looked at us as soon as Bozer was gone. Now it was only me, Riley, Jack and Matty. 

Riley seemed nervous about how to say that we were together. _Were we though?_ And again our conversation was cut in half at the most important moment so I couldn’t be sure anymore. If she loved me why did she want to be on separate teams? I couldn’t get a hold on what was happening, but I loved her and Jack had to know. Even if it meant I was about to have a very awkward talk with him or even maybe a little intimidation. Remembering how his eyes turned kinda murderous whenever a new guy entered Riley’s life like Billy… well, I had my reasons to be worried. I looked over at Riles, checking if she had any good ideas. Her eyes were still a bit puffy and red from crying but she was definitely stressed too. She looked at me the same way as I did as if she was asking: _any ideas?_ Well, we had no plan how to do this so we had to do the only thing we were good at: Improvise.

“You owe me 50$, Dalton, that’s happening here,” Matty broke the silence and everybody looked at her with quizzical looks. “Remember our bet before you left?”

“What are you..?” Jack seemed confused then he suddenly looked at Riley, then at me and then back at Riley. “You two?” he yelled and my heart stopped. 

“Jack…” Riley was about to say something to calm him down but she changed her mind. “Hold on a second what bet did you lose?”

For a short minute no one said anything. Jack scratched his jaw then walked over to sit down. When I looked over to Riles I could see her tremble a bit. Even if I had my worries about us right now, that did not change anything about how I felt for her so I moved closer to her and slid my hand into hers. She looked up at me and a grateful smile spread on her face. She was usually very confident about dating guys, I could see how she never cared about Jack going on full protective father mode, but this time it was different. For a second Jack kept his eyes on our hands, intertwined then took out his wallet and gave 50 bucks to Matty. 

“You could have figured it out a bit faster, you know, I was so close to winning,” Jack said.

“Wait you bet on how fast we will get together?” I blurted it out. This was definitely not what I expected and yet wasn’t surprising. 

“Before Jack left, he said now that he is not going to be around you two should be able to spend a little time on your own and figure out all of this,” Matty sat down next to Jack who was still looking at us, frowning. 

“Yeah, and I thought considering how genius you are a year tops would be enough for you two,” Jack said. “Seriously what took you longer than that?”

“I told you, Dalton, feelings are nothing like science,” Matty commented, smiling happily because she was right.

“Stop right now!” After what I saw from Riley while we were at Codex and then met Martinez, I knew this face of hers was definitely the warning for the two delinquents in front of us to explain what they were up to. “You two made a bet about us? You two knew that we were going to get together when we didn’t? How the hell did you figure it out? It’s been 3 years since Jack left.”

“Listen,” Jack stood up and walked to us. “Just because I don’t hack computers or build time machines out of tinfoil and battery…” I had to stop myself from telling him it is not yet scientifically proven that we can bend the time continuum in any ways, let alone do it with only tinfoil and a battery. “It doesn’t mean I am stupid. The only person who paid more attention than me to the guys Riley was dating, was you, my friend. When you told me about how Billy looked at her I realized the only way you could see him was if you kept Riley under close watch… Plus you two nerds always keep talking about weird stuff and not only understand each other but you smile like idiots while finishing each other’s sentences. I guess it was inevitable.”

“Hate to say it, but Jack is right,” Matty added. “You weren’t really hard to read. You know body language is actually unconsciously directed, so even if you did not realise it, you were already showing signs of affection just by always leaning closer to each other, constantly looking for the other in the same room. The only thing that was hard to guess was how long it will take for you to figure it out and accept your feelings. Considering how none of you are emotionally open I figured it will be longer than just a year, but Jack was convinced you’ll be together a year after he left. And obviously I was right.”

She was so pleased and the frowns Jack was giving her just made her mood lit up a lot more. Matty loved being right but if it meant Jack was wrong it was so much more enjoyable, and I totally understood it. Yet, the fact they made this bet more than 3 years ago was insane. And still it was not. I knew deep down that my fate was sealed the moment I sat down across Riley Davis in Supermax, I just didn’t realise it until it was almost too late. 

“I can’t believe you bet on us…” Riley was still in shock but she tried to snap out of it. “So you mean you are okay with us, Jack?” she asked and moved a bit closer to me. This was the moment I took a deep breath and held it in until he answered.

“Well…” he started and stepped right in front of us. His face was all serious for a second before turning into a huge smile. “Of course I am! You two are the most important people in my life, I want you to be happy and both of you are so amazing, I already know together you’ll be unstoppable.”

Riley let out a sigh next to me and I followed her. Getting Jack’s approval was one of the most important things for me since I knew he was like a father to Riley and he was the closest I could have to a brother. Right now I really needed my found family and it seemed I was finally getting it all together. 

“Okay, I need a drink,” Riley let go of my hand and walked into the house while I was smiling like an idiot. 

“Alright,” Jack said again and moved closer to whisper. “Mac, you know I love you like my brother. But the rules are rules, so if you ever hurt her I will have to do what is necessary and kick your ass, understood?” 

There it was! Even though I knew he meant it seriously, his smile told me he knew just like I did: I would never hurt Riley in any way. We had been hurt way too much already, now we only wanted to be happy. I shook Jack’s hand and nodded to him to say: I got the message, just in time before Riley walked out to join us again. She brought a beer to me and Jack and one for herself. When we sat down next to me I could feel her body lean into mine so I put a hand around her shoulder to pull her closer to me. From the corner of my eye I saw Jack smile a bit before talking again.

“So Boss Lady, when is our first mission?” Jack asked and I froze as I felt Riley’s body get tense. She didn’t move but I knew she was getting nervous again. 

“That depends when they are ready to return and so far we do not have any important cases on hand,” Matty answered and she looked at me. She gave me a little smile and nodded to me. She knew what I was thinking about and it seemed she was encouraging me to get to the bottom of what was happening with Riley. 

“About that,” I started and pulled away from Riles. “Now that Jack is back, what is going to happen with the team?”

Riley looked at me with sadness in her eyes. 

“Mac, I meant what I said,” she started and I already knew this was not going to end the way I hoped. I stood up and she followed me. “Listen, I know a lot of things changed lately but this didn’t. I can’t go back to how things were before.

“Of course _we_ can’t go back, Riles, because finally everything is different,” I answered. I was a lot more upset than I wanted to admit. She was barely mine and she already tried to pull away. “I don’t understand what you want then.”

“I want to be more than just the girl who stays behind at the war room or in the van, Mac!” she almost yelled while I could hear her voice breaking when tears filled her eyes. “I have spent the last months locating bad guys and then sit back while you and Desi went to actually finish the job.”

“Because that’s how we work, Riley, everybody does what we are best at!”

“But I don’t want it to work this way!” she said and I could see how her whole body was trembling from the anger and desperation. I saw Jack move but Matty stopped him and shook her head. This was our fight; we had to find a common ground. “Of course you don’t understand, you are the one and only Angus MacGyver! You cannot be replaced, nobody can do what you do all the time! But me? Mac I cannot be just a hacker who sits and types on the keyboard. I want to be out there like you! With you, do more and not just wait for our comms to go silent and then me being left alone! I need to prove that I have a part in our team that cannot be replaced! I have to!”

“Replaced?” I asked while she walked away from me to the edge of the balcony looking down at the view. So this is where this whole separate teams idea came from. “Riles, I know we had people come and go in our team but you cannot really believe all of this! Listen to me,” I stepped in front of her and framed her face with my hands to make sure she looked deep in my eyes, seeing I meant every word I was saying. “You could never be replaced because you are so much more than just a hacker. Don’t you see that without you most of us would be dead at least ten times now? I would be dead! Riles, knowing that you have my back keeps my hands steady during the missions; your voice on the comms keeps my mind calm when I am about to do something very stupid; you keep me centered whenever I am losing myself! I need you and not just because you are a brilliant mind but because you give me strength just by looking at me, and trusting me. You want to go and kick some ass? Fine, I’ll be more than happy to see you do it. But don’t ask me to go out there without you! We work miracles together because we complete each other, so please Riley, stay. I need you!”

She didn’t say a thing, she just looked at me with her beautiful eyes. I couldn’t imagine letting her out of my sight, no matter if it was with Jack or Hastings. No, at this point I had to be the one there for her. And I needed her to be there for me, too. For a very long time now she was the reason I could still do what I did: when I started spiraling she brought me back; when I was doing something stupid I just thought about how she believes in me. Without her I would have been lost by now. I tried to make sure she understood everything that I was thinking about in the moment without saying them out loud. She must have because it didn’t take too long for her to pull me in for a deep kiss as a sign of agreement. 

“I know I said I am okay with you, but I don’t know about this part…” Jack said and when we finally looked at him, he seemed to be embarrassed. Oh, this was going to be very interesting, I could already tell. 

“I guess it’s decided then, one team!” Matty said and I could see how Riley finally nodded. “We can work out the rest of the changes in the team later, but now I think you had a long journey Jack, we should get you home!” When Jack didn’t understand what she was trying to say, she sighed and tried again. “Sometimes I forget how dense you are, Dalton. Let’s go, leave them alone! See you tomorrow, lovebirds.” 

Jack and Riley hugged and then we all waved our goodbyes. As much as I loved to have Jack back, we had a lot of time to spend with him from now on. But right now all I needed was to keep Riley in my arms and fall asleep next to her, knowing we were finally getting our happy ending. 

🖇🖇🖇

“Come on, Riles, we should really leave now!” I yelled from the kitchen, looking at my watch. The wedding was about to start in less than 2 hours and we still had a long road ahead of us. I was about to call her again when she finally came out of our room.

“Alright, I am ready,” she said still adjusting her dress so she missed how my jaw landed on the floor. She was wearing a deep blue dress that matched my suit perfectly. It was long, almost touched the floor but it had a cut that showed her left leg just enough to make me want to skip the whole wedding ceremony. _Will there ever be a day when I am not mesmerized by her beauty?_ No, the answer was a straight no. Martinez was right about one thing that night: she indeed had the beauty of a goddess. 

“You look absolutely stunning,” I said and she gave me one of her many beautiful smiles. “You know, Leanna will be very pissed if everybody keeps looking at you while it is her wedding.”

“I’ll try my best to stay invisible,” she said while putting on her high heels. 

“In that dress? Invisible? You? I can find a solution to how to travel in time earlier than to make that possible,” I gave her a quick kiss before we left the house. “I have a surprise for you.” 

“No way!” she immediately saw the car in front of our house and when she looked at me I pulled out the keys from my pocket. 

“Jack said I can borrow it so we can arrive at the wedding with style,” I smiled while Riley kept her eyes on the GTO. 

“Can I drive?” she asked and I pretended to think about it. When she crossed her arms and raised one of her eyebrows at me I smiled and gave her the keys. She came up to me and gave me a kiss.

“It is really not fair how I cannot say no to you,” I said while she walked in front of me to the car. Did I shamelessly watch her for a while? Of course I did. 

“Oh yeah?” she turned to me before getting into the car. “You seemed rather eager to say yes to me yesterday night? But you know what I can always throw those handcuffs away.” 

She was seriously intoxicating. I had to take a couple of deep breaths before I got into the car and when I finally did she was smirking.

“You are going to get this back, I promise you. It’s going to be a long night, Miss Davis.”

“Can’t wait to see what you improvise, Mr MacGyver,” she looked at me with excitement and a bit of challenge in her eyes and then we hit the road.

When we got to the mansion where Leanna and Charlie’s wedding was held, the sky already turned into a deeper lilac and blue. It was so beautiful and yet not compared to the woman sitting next to me. After getting out of the car, she immediately held onto my arm while we walked up the stairs. We both tried to find Bozer with our eyes, knowing he needed all the support he could get. It’s been already 2 months since our lives turned back into normal and Bozer asked us if he should come to the wedding. For weeks we told him whatever he decided to do we were happy to be there for him. And then suddenly he blurted out he is going and we should too. When we offered him to come with us he said:

“It is already bad enough to go to the wedding of my ex, you think I wanna go as a third wheel? No thanks.”

So we let him come alone. But when we joined the crowd and found him not far from the bar, it turned out he didn’t come alone.

“Hey, Boze,” I greeted him and then looked at his plus one. “And Desi.”

“Oh stop the gears in your heads,” Desi rolled her eyes. “I am only here because he didn’t want to come alone, okay? And because of the free drinks,” she said and tried to hide her smile while she took a sip from her champagne. Things weren’t entirely okay after Jack returned and Desi became sort of a back up, and she spent half of her time training the new candidates at the Phoenix and only joined us for some very risky missions. After a couple of weeks she showed for a beer and we could see how much she tried to work this out. I knew from our relationship how hard it was for her to open up emotionally and also to connect with others and care for their emotions, which only made me prouder of her for being here with Bozer. 

We all sat next to each other during the ceremony. When Leanna slowly walked down the aisle I kept my eyes on Bozer to see how he was holding up. It was no secret he still had feelings for her, but he was always one of the kindest people I have met.When Leanna spotted us while she walked her eyes got filled with tears and then it got stuck on Bozer. I don’t know what he whispered but I could see her eyes light up and mouth a _thank you_ back to him. It was a beautiful ceremony but my mind kept wondering how one day it will be Riley and me. Because after spending almost 3 months together, going to sleep and waking up next to each other, seeing how smoothly our missions went because we didn’t even need to use words… It was no longer a question: I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and when I tried to tell Jack he said he already knew it and nothing would make him happier. 

“Oh my God, you’re here!” Leanna came over to us when the wedding party started. She looked beautiful and happy. She hugged me, Riley and then Bozer. It was just one split second longer than our hug but we all felt the difference. “I am so happy you could make it!”

“Congratulations! It was a beautiful ceremony! We are so happy for you, guys,” Riley said with a wide smile on her face, her eyes brighter than the sun. She unconsciously leaned into me and slipped her hand into mine. Leanna followed her moves and a second later she said:

“You two finally got together?” Bozer started laughing so hard he couldn’t stand straight while Riley and I shared an annoyed look. _Again? Is there anyone who didn't know already about our feelings?_ “Sorry, did I say something wrong?”

“Oh no,” Bozer finally stopped. “It’s just still funny how all of us knew about them and they only got together like 3 months ago. They were seriously the last ones to figure out and it is the best joke of my life.”

As there were at least 100 people at the party, Leanna and Charlie had to go and greet the other guests, too, after our brief conversation. We agreed to talk about everything that happened later that night, but it was more like a “Riley and Leanna will talk I should stay away” type of agreement. 

“Hey, you okay?” I asked Bozer when Riley left and Desi was already gone to get another drink. 

“Honestly? I thought it would be worse,” he admitted. “It’s just so weird. But she is so happy and I am the last person who would take that away from her.”

“You are a good man, Bozer, and I know soon we’ll be drinking at your wedding,” I patted him on the back. He smiled and then we drank. “Here comes Riley, I should go maybe find the singles table before you too hit it off… Weddings, they always bring out the worst about couples,” he joked and left just before Riley stopped next to me.

The rest of the evening went on without any real excitement. Everyone kept drinking and dancing, I even ended up dancing with Leanna who admitted she saw sparks between me and Riley since our double newly-weds mission and how happy she was for us. And then she asked me about Bozer but before I could have answered Bozer showed up to steal her for the next dance. While I walked back to Riley I saw Desi at the bar, sending away a man who was trying too hard to get her to dance. When she caught my eyes we both smiled. She wasn’t going to dance that was certain so good luck to all men who even dared to ask her. Not much later when the moon was already above us and the lights were turned on so the whole reception looked like we were literally dancing under the stars, came the bouquet toss. When Riley said she would rather stay put, Bozer took her hand and they both joined the young ladies. Bozer looked a lot more excited about it then Riley, especially when the bouquet landed perfectly in her hands. I started laughing out loud which only earned me an eye roll.

“Having fun here?” She asked when she finally sat down next to me, putting the bouquet on the table and taking a sip from her drink.

“Hell yeah, I am,” I leaned in closer to her. “You are definitely better at catching bouquets than catching fishes.”

“Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!” She put on an annoyed face but her eyes were smiling. Our first official date was a getaway with fishing and it was one of the happiest days of my life. Even though I ended up in the lake because when I told her for the 10th time to make a more confident cast, she threw the whole rod in the water. “On my defence, I only did what you told me.”

“It’s getting definitely crazy here,” I changed the subject and just to prove my point I looked over to the dancefloor where Bozer was having fun with three girls. He definitely did better than we expected. And then we looked to the bar where Desi was deep in a conversation with a beautiful young woman and she was smiling a lot wider than I ever saw her. I sent a look to Riley who seemed to be thinking about the same idea. When Desi put her hand on the blond's we both agreed with a smile only. “Let’s go for a walk, okay?”

We walked not too far from the mansion, whe we found ourselves at the beach but still heard the music and the laughs of the guests. Riley took off her shoes and dug her feet in the sand. The way the moon made her whole being sparkle, how content and happy she smiled when she closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the ocean… I was at loss of words. She was absolutely radiant and I could barely believe I was lucky enough to have her in my life. She caught me watching when she opened her eyes. 

“Stop it,” she smiled at me and put her hands around my neck. 

“No promises, it’s really hard not to admire you, you know,” I gave her a slow but passionate kiss to back up my words. 

“You definitely caught some girls’ attention tonight, as well,” she noted. 

“You don’t say, who?” I asked and pretended to be heading back to the party. She dragged me back by my arm. “If you hadn’t noticed yet, there is no one else for me here or anywhere. Only you.”

We shared one deep look, which we always did whenever we had a moment where words couldn’t help. 

“I’ve got you something,” I said and took out something from my pocket. She held it in her hands, turned it around until the moonlight gave her enough light to see the name Riles carved on it. 

“You got me a Swiss Army knife?” she asked with amusement but I could tell she really loved it. 

“Not entirely, you see I have enhanced it a little for your skills,” and I showed her the extra wire cutter, the picklocks and everything else she needed while she usually hacked my phone or someone else's computer. 

“Thank you, I love it!” she said and gave me a quick kiss. 

“Good then let’s see how you use it, because I don’t have the keys to this box,” I took out my second present which was a tiny brown box. This time my hands were a bit more shaky while I gave it to her. She looked at me a little suspicious. 

It didn’t take her too long to open the box but her hands lingered on it for a while before she opened it. Her eyes were locked with mine trying to figure out what was in it. She looked nervous and I reminded myself how ridiculously cheesy it was to propose to your love at someone else’s wedding. She was probably thinking the same when she finally got the courage and opened it up. She took out the necklace like it was the most precious thing in the world for her. 

“It’s beautiful,” Riley said while she ran her fingers on the surface of the small pendant. 

“It opens up,” I said and she opened it. “There is nothing in it yet but my mother used to keep a picture in it about their wedding day with my dad.”

“This was your mom’s?” She asked with tears filling her eyes.

“Yes, I found it a couple of weeks ago when I was going through some old boxes,” I admitted. “It was actually stuck, so I had to fix it and that’s when I found the picture of them in it. I thought maybe one day there could be one about us…” I didn’t finish my sentence but she smiled so widely I knew she understood me perfectly.

“Can you help with it?” she asked. I nodded and while she held her hair I put it around her neck. She immediately started fiddling with it just like I did with paper clips. She put her back to my chest and I hugged her from behind. 

“Just so you know,” I whispered into her ears. “I do have the other box ready for you along with a question.”

She turned around in my arms, one hand still on the pendant, the other caressing my face before she kissed me. 

“And just so you know,” she smiled at me. “I do have an answer ready for you, too.”

For a while time stood still we just kissed and enjoyed the moment and the love we shared so deeply for each other. When we heard people starting to sing loudly from the party we pulled away laughing. 

“Oh-oh, they are playing country,” Riley noted. “We are entering a new phase of drunkenness.”

“Well then, let’s not miss the fun,” I said and I extended my arm to her to ask her for a dance. 

“Mac, you know I can’t dance…”

“I know for a fact that is not true,” I said and pulled her closer by her waist. She put one of her hands on my shoulder and the other joined with my hand. “You just don’t like dancing, but we can easily fix that.”

“You have a real addiction to fixing things, you know that right?” she asked. 

“I can’t help it, that’s the only thing I am good at…”

“I can definitely state that is not true you have many others… pleasant skills,” she smirked and I knew where this was going. But before I could have captured her lips she started laughing.

“What’s so funny now?”

“The first time we met, I asked you what you do exactly,” she remembered and I happily nodded. The day my future was decided for me. “You said: The way I hack computers you hack everything else.”

“I remember, thank you so much…” I said with a bit of embarrassment. Looking back it was a very weird answer but it seemed she was having a lot of fun with it. 

“When you said you hack everything… I didn’t think you meant _literally_ everything,” she looked up at me with so much love in her eyes I couldn’t have looked away even if somebody put a gun to my head. “It seems, Mr MacGyver you could even hack my heart.”

Without knowing what to respond I just looked at her all lovestruck until she put her head on my chest and I laid a kiss on top of her head. We danced in one place, not really moving, just letting peace, contentment and pure love surround us while in the distance a song played on perfectly fitting our moment:

_“I know I'm only human_

_Don't know how many sunsets I got left_

_And I don't wanna ruin_

_This moment by wondering what comes next_

_I just want to love you_

_Like it's all I'm living for_

_Hold you close, enjoy you more_

_And spend a little less time keeping score”_


End file.
